Plant Odor Bio-Engineering Research (I): Analytical And Monitoring Techniques Of Plant Volatiles

This project was focused on developing a new analytical technique to collect and analyze the volatile compounds emitted from plants, and to develop a new attractant of vagetabel leafminer Liriomyza sativae by analysising the volatile compounds from its host plants. Some exploit was made to reconstruct the chemical ecological information expressed by plants with the help of plant trans-gene technology, as well. Some valuable results and developments in this study are summarized as follows:(1)Solid phase microextraction(SPME) technique and gas chromatogram(GC) analysis system was applied to extract the biogenic volatile organic compounds(BVOCs)emitted by living samples of tomato and geranium. A set of collecting devices designed by the authors was used in these experiments. The major components in the BVOCs of tomato samples were identified as α-pinene, α-terpinene, phellandrene, sabinene and some unknown chemicals. And α-pinene, Camphene, β-pinene, β-Myrcene, Limonene, Caryophyllene and α-Humulene were found in the BVOCs of geranium samples. In contrast, the control experiments which employed the conventional aerating adsorption system could not distinguish the certain volatile chemicals of tomato and geranium because of the complex background. These experiments indicated that the technique and devices established in this research were effective to identify the BVOCs emitted by the living aromatic plants directly, with the advantages such as clean-background, convenience, good repeatability and solvent-free.(2)Applying the same method, the major volatiles from cowpea bean and kidney bean samples, which are the host plants for Liriomyza sativae, were identified as trans-2-Hexenal, cis-3-Hexen-1-ol, trans-2-Hexen-1-ol, 1-Octen-3-ol, cis-3-Hexen-1-ol, acetate, α-Ionone and β-Ionone. The results from the field trapping tests showed that the lure made by these seven compounds have attractiveness to L. sativae, and showed the valuble applied prospect. (3)On the other hand, the Linalool synthase gene (LIS) cloned from Artemisia annua (QH5) was transformed into the model plant Arabidopsis, and the change of the volatiles was detected. This result made a good base for the future study.