Evaluation of the volatile emission changes from Arabidopsis thaliana Col-0 in response to temperature stress and Myzus persicae infestation interaction by HS-SPME-GC/MS

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are considered to be priming agents in plant responsive defense
to protect themselves against abiotic or/and biotic stresses. Such stresses often influence on plant
photosynthesis and defense responses, resulting in a variety of volatile profiles. We investigated how
different temperature regimes affect the VOCs emission capacity of Arabidopsis thaliana Col-0 (A.t Col-0) in
the presence and absence of a sucking insect – Myzus persicae (green peach aphid). VOCs analyses were
made with solid-phase micro-extraction coupled with gas chromatography - mass spectrometry (SPME-
GC/MS) under controlled and various stress treatments. In response to temperature stresses, alcohols,
ketones, aldehydes and terpenes were the most emitted VOCs. Moreover, the compared results showed that
the percent emission of several compounds changed significantly. The interaction between temperature
stresses and aphids released some new volatile components; like isothiocynates, esters, sulfur compound and
nitrile. Besides, the qualitative and overall proportion of volatile blends differed significantly from plants
subjected to the stress treatments within different time intervals (0-24h; 24-48h and 48-72h). Overall, both
stress treatments correlated with increased or decreased levels of VOCs classes from Arabidopsis shoot
organs. Knowledge of how the temperature – aphids interaction influences on VOCs emission in this study
also provides interesting information for evaluating the responsive resistance in plants under natural
environments.