Terpene plant emission

Degenhardt J, Gershenzon J, Baldwin IT, Kessler A (2003) Attracting friends to feast on foes engineering terpene emission to make crop plants more attractive to herbivore enemies. Curr Opin Biotechnol 14 169-176... 

Biological emissions of particles may occur from plants and trees additionally, volatile organics such as isoprene and terpenes can react in the air to form small particles. 

There definitely are very large emissions of higher hydrocarbons from plants, including ethylene. This has been definitely discovered above the tropical forests in Brazil. The most active emissions are actually isoprene and the terpenes, but there are many other hydrocarbons which are chemically very reactive. 

Volatile emissions from vegetation include hydrocarbons other than isoprene and terpenes. Altshuller (1983) has compiled emission data available to him [mainly from Zimmerman (1979a,b)]. The emissions contained C2-C6 alkanes, various alkenes, and C6-C12 volatile organic compounds. Practically every deciduous plant and all the grasses studied emitted alkanes with ethane and propane dominating the mixture. Twenty to 50% of total hydrocarbon emissions, on average, consisted of alkanes. 

The dramatic increase in terpene formation, accumulation, and emission in P. abies in response to methyl jasmonate is consistent with the effect of methyl jasmonate or jasmonic acid on many defense compounds in angiosperms. In conifers, jasmonates had been previously shown to promote the formation of heat shock and defense signaling proteins, to enhance resistance to pathogenic fimgi, and to promote colonization with ectomycorrhizae. In relation to terpenes, jasmonates had been shown to promote formation of an oxygenated sesquiterpene, todomatuic acid, and an oxygenated diterpene, paclitaxel (taxol), in cell cultures, but had never before been reported to enhance terpene accumulation in intact plants. 

MARTIN, D.M., GERSHENZON, J., BOHLMANN, J., Induction of volatile terpene biosynthesis and diurnal emission by methyl jasmonate in foliage of Norway spruce.. Plant Physiol, 2003, 132, 1586-1599. 

VOC emissions of paper mills and wood processing plants usually contain a significant amount of terpenes, especially a-pinene (CioHie see Table 11-4). Effective plasma removal of a-pinene (CioHig) has been demonstrated in pulsed corona discharges described in Section 11.8.3 at temperatures of 70-200°C (Sobacchi et al., 2003), which is illustrated in Fig. 11-66 for different pulse frequencies corresponding to different levels of discharge power (the SEI is 20, 50, and 100 Wh/m for the frequencies 266, 667, and 1450 Hz). 

Using these methods in combination with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS), we were able to detect the emission of a number of monoterpenes as well as a large group of sesquiterpenes from whole Arabidopsis Columbia plants (Fig. 1.4). In total, 3 monoterpenes (P-myrcene, linalool, and limonene) and over 20 sesquiterpene hydrocarbons were detected with E- -caryophyllene as the predominant terpene volatile. The sesquiterpene volatiles showed a high structural diversity including acyclic, mono-, di- and tricyclic compounds. All monoterpenes and 19 sesquiterpenes were identified with certainty by mass spectra and comparison with authentic standards. 

It has been suggested that volatile terpenes play a similar dual action inside the leaves and participate in ozone quenching in the intercellular spaces before they are released into the atmosphere. In plants exposed to ozone either a reduction or an increase of isoprene and monoterpene emission is observed. Particularly high ozone concentrations induce the terpene emission often as a result of cellular damage. There is evidence that volatile terpenes are able to reduce ozone damage and to quench ozone and reactive oxygen species (ROS). Furthermore, it has been demonstrated in tropical forests a large fraction of total plant sesquiterpene... 

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