Practical applications of research into the regulation of plant volatile emission.

Throughout their life cycles, plants release diverse blends of volatile compounds that play crucial roles in pollinator attraction, defense and communication. The importance of plant volatiles, in addition to the general appeal of fragrances and flavors to humans, have made these secondary metabolites a target for metabolic engineering. In the past decade, significant discoveries in the plant volatile biosynthetic pathways have provided a starting point for their modification. Pioneering attempts to alter plant volatile profiles have uncovered the complexity of networks and their regulation, and have built new avenues for future successful metabolic engineering.