Dear Colleagues,

Green leaf volatiles (GLV) are released by almost all plants upon physical damage, including but is not limited to insect herbivory, pathogen infection, cold stress, and other biotic and abiotic challenges that can likely result in damage. While green leaf volatiles have been known for more than a hundred years, their biological activity has only been characterized and described for the last 20–30 years. Their biosynthesis appears to be quite simple, mainly including two enzymes, a lipoxygenase that adds molecular oxygen to a fatty acid, and hydroperoxide lyase, which cleaves off 6-carbon units as aldehydes, mainly Z-3-hexenal and a 12-carbon unit that may serve as a precursor for traumatin, one of the first plant wound hormones described. Z-3-hexenal can be isomerized to a corresponding E-2-aldehyde, and both can then be further modified into alcohols and esters, which make up the majority of the GLV we know today.

It has further been shown that plants can “smell” these compounds, resulting in the activation of specific responses. These responses often seem to prepare the perceiving plants against those threats that were initially responsible for the release of GLV. This preparation or priming of plants by GLV has been mainly studied for the last 20 years and demonstrated that GLV prime responses against insect herbivory, pathogen infection, cold stress, heat stress, salt stress, and others. However, little is still known about the signaling pathways and their regulation that lead to these responses. Moreover, while the biosynthesis of GLV in general is well described, our understanding of the regulation of GLV production in plants on the individual and community level is also still very limited.

This Special Issue invites articles (original research, perspectives, hypotheses, opinions, modeling approaches, methods, and reviews) that focus on the elucidation of the biosynthesis, the biological activity of green leaf volatiles (GLV), GLV-specific signaling, and the ecological impact for plant communities. The spectrum of biological activities of GLV also makes them a worthy target for applications in commercial settings. Therefore, papers on the potential of GLV in transformative approaches in agricultural and horticultural settings are also welcome.

This Special Issue of Plants aims to present a collection of high-quality relevant scientific papers to promote discussions and inform the scientific community of significant new information within this exciting field of plant biology.

Dr. Jurgen Engelberth
Guest Editor

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• green leaf volatiles
• biotic stress
• abiotic stress
• signaling
• biosynthesis
• ecology
• plant–insect interactions
• plant–pathogen interactions
• tritrophic interactions
• damage-associated molecular pattern