Green Leaf Volatiles (GLVs)

About Green Leaf Volatiles

• It represents an important group of plant volatiles.
• They consist of six carbon (C6) compounds including alcohols, aldehydes and esters and are released from almost every plant.
• The release of GLVs is caused by mechanical damage or herbivory by fungal or bacterial infection.
• These are implicated in panoply of interactions; they have been reported to repel or attract herbivores and their natural enemies. 
• Plants have two major defence mechanisms, involving a chain of molecular reactions.
• The reactions are triggered when a plant is damaged and GLVs are released as by-products. (By mounting a defence response, plants can make themselves less palatable or even indigestible to the insect attackers.)
• The molecular cascade is mediated by calcium, a common mediator of chemical and electrical signals found throughout biology.

What are Volatiles?

• These are elements or compounds that change from solid or liquid state into vapour at relatively low temperatures.
• The most common volatiles are carbon dioxide, nitrogen, ammonia, hydrogen, methane, sulphur dioxide and water which are abundant in nature and necessary to living organisms.

Q1) What is Aldehyde?

It is any of a class of organic compounds in which a carbon atom shares a double bond with an oxygen atom, a single bond with a hydrogen atom, and a single bond with another atom or group of atoms. The double bond between carbon and oxygen is characteristic of all aldehydes and is known as the carbonyl group. 

Source: Plants warn each other of danger, and now we can watch them | Explained