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Evidence for early intracellular accumulation of volatile compounds during spadix development in Arum italicum L. and preliminary data on some tropical Aroids

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Abstract

Staining and histochemistry of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) were performed at different inflorescence developmental stages on nine aroid species; one temperate, Arum italicum and eight tropical from the genera Caladium, Dieffenbachia and Philodendron. Moreover, a qualitative and quantitative analysis of VOCs constituting the scent of A. italicum, depending on the stage of development of inflorescences was also conducted. In all nine species, vesicles were observed in the conical cells of either the appendix or the stamens (thecae) and the staminodes. VOCs were localised in intracellular vesicles from the early stages of inflorescence development until their release during receptivity of gynoecium. This localisation was observed by the increase of both number and diameter of the vesicles during 1 week before receptivity. Afterwards, vesicles were fewer and smaller but rarely absent. In A. italicum, staining and gas chromatography analyses confirmed that the vesicles contained terpenes. The quantitatively most important ones were the sesquiterpenes, but monoterpenes were not negligible. Indeed, the quantities of terpenes matched the vesicles’ size evolution during 1 week. Furthermore, VOCs from different biosynthetic pathways (sesquiterpenes and alkanes) were at their maximum quantity 2 days before gynoecium receptivity (sesquiterpenes and alkanes) or during receptivity (isobutylamine, monoterpenes, skatole and p-cresol). VOCs seemed to be emitted during gynoecium receptivity and/or during thermogenesis, and FADs are accumulated after thermogenesis in the spadix. These complex dynamics of the different VOCs could indicate specialisation of some VOCs and cell machinery to attract pollinators on the one hand and to repulse/protect against phytophagous organisms and pathogens after pollination on the other hand.

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Abbreviations

ANOVA:

Univariate analysis of variance

GC-MS:

Gas chromatography linked to mass spectrometry

HRMAS:

High-resolution magic angle spinning

NaDi:

1-Naphtol and N,N-dimethyl-p-phenylenediamine

NMR:

Nuclear magnetic resonance

NPMANOVA:

Non-parametric multivariate analysis of variance

OPLS-DA:

Orthogonal projections to latent structures discriminant analysis

VOC:

Volatile organic compound

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by a CNRS grant from the Amazonie II program APR—Biodiversité, écologie chimique et chimie des substances naturelles: Aracées and an Investissement d’Avenir grant of the French Agence Nationale de la Recherche (Centre d’Étude de la Biodiversité Amazonienne (CEBA) ANR-10-LABX-0025). Authors thank Frédéric Hache (Department of Foreign Languages, UJM) and the three anonymous referees for text revision.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratoire BVpam, EA 3061, Université Jean Monnet, Université de Lyon, Saint-Etienne, France

    Aurélia Leguet, Sandrine Moja, Sylvie Baudino & Jean-Claude Caissard

  2. CNRS, UMR-8172 EcoFoG, 97310, Kourou, Guyane, France

    Aurélia Leguet & Marc Gibernau

  3. Centrale Marseille, Aix Marseille Université, CNRS, iSm2 UMR 7313, 13397, Marseille, France

    Laetitia Shintu & Stefano Caldarelli

  4. CNRS, UMR-6134 SPE, 20000, Ajaccio, France

    Marc Gibernau

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  1. Aurélia Leguet
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  2. Marc Gibernau
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  3. Laetitia Shintu
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  7. Jean-Claude Caissard
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Correspondence to Marc Gibernau.

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Communicated by: Sven Thatje

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Appendix S1

Optical micrographies of hand-made sections (PDF 763 kb)

Appendix S2

GC-MS analysis of VOCs (data matrix) (PDF 48 kb)

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Leguet, A., Gibernau, M., Shintu, L. et al. Evidence for early intracellular accumulation of volatile compounds during spadix development in Arum italicum L. and preliminary data on some tropical Aroids. Naturwissenschaften 101, 623–635 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-014-1197-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-014-1197-8

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