Emission of sulfur-containing volatiles from Arabidopsis thaliana (L.)

Abstract: Herbivore-infested plants often release a variety of volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Here, we studied the effects of feeding Plutella xylostella (L.) (0, 3, 9, 20 pest larvae within 0-4 h and 4-8 h infestation, respectively) on the emission of sulfur-containing VOCs in Arabidopsis thaliana (L.) Heynh Col-0 (A.t. Col-0) by headspace solid-phase micro-extraction coupled to gas chromatography – mass spectrometry (HS-SPME-GC/MS). The analytical results showed that the relative emission of sulfur-containing metabolites increased significantly in Arabidopsis plants subjected to P. xylostella infestation according to the density and residence duration of pest larvae on shoot organs. The main compound from infested plants was dimethyl disulfide. We suggest that the correlations between the stress level (density and time infestation) and the sulfides observed in this study provide a means to understand the changes of VOCs profile of plant under chewer infestation.