Misión Biológica de Galicia (MBG-CSIC), Apartado de Correos 28, 36080, Pontevedra, Galicia, Spain.
Departamento de Ecología Tropical, Campus de Ciencias Biológicas y Agropecuarias, Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán, Apartado, Postal 4-116, Itzimná, 97000, Mérida, Yucatán, Mexico.
Curr Opin Insect Sci. 2019 Apr;32:15-21. doi: 10.1016/j.cois.2018.09.003. Epub 2018 Sep 10.
Over three decades of work on airborne plant communication have taught us that plants send, receive, and respond to volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitted by conspecific as well as heterospecific neighbouring plants. Much of this research has focused on the consequences of plant-plant communication on resistance against herbivory, with studies showing that VOCs emitted by herbivore-damaged plants increase resistance of neighbouring undamaged plants. However, a key aspect that has received less attention concerns the ecological specificity and context-dependency of this phenomenon. Knowledge on this is crucial for assessing the ecological mechanisms that govern plant communication, determining its biological significance under natural conditions, as well as designing effective strategies for its application (e.g. in crop protection). Here we synthesize important advances from incipient work on the ecological specificity of plant communication according to three main aspects: plant-based specificity, herbivore-based specificity, and the influence of the abiotic context. We then provide some ideas for future research to improve our understanding of the specificity of plant communication and its ecological and evolutionary importance.
三十多年来，关于植物空气传播的研究告诉我们，植物会发送、接收和响应同种及异种邻近植物释放的挥发性有机化合物 (VOC)。这项研究主要集中在植物间通讯对抗食草性的影响上，研究表明，受食草动物伤害的植物释放的 VOC 会增加邻近未受伤害植物的抵抗力。然而，一个受到较少关注的关键方面是这种现象的生态特异性和背景依赖性。了解这一点对于评估控制植物通讯的生态机制、确定其在自然条件下的生物学意义以及设计有效的应用策略（例如在作物保护中）至关重要。在这里，我们根据三个主要方面综合了植物通讯生态特异性的初期工作中的重要进展：基于植物的特异性、基于食草动物的特异性以及非生物背景的影响。然后，我们提供了一些未来研究的思路，以提高我们对植物通讯特异性及其生态和进化重要性的理解。
