Making Sense of Plant Smells

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Researchers are using Brewers clarkia a member of the evening primrose family to study plant volatiles. Brewers clarkia flowers produce and emit more than 10 different volatiles. Eran Picherskys research group at University of Michigan has identified ...
Researchers are using Brewer's clarkia, a member of the evening primrose family, to study plant volatiles. Brewer's clarkia flowers produce and emit more than 10 different volatiles. Eran Pichersky's research group at University of Michigan has identified the enzymes responsible for the synthesis of the five main volatiles. Credit: Pichersky Laboratory, University of Michigan

A trip to the neighborhood florist is proof positive that flowers have an array of scents to pique our senses, but researchers are also investigating the myriad other functions of these aromas--known to scientists as "plant volatiles." Typically liquid substances that evaporate easily at average temperatures, plant volatiles play important ecological roles from attracting pollinators to repulsing herbivores and from destroying microorganisms to dispersing seed.


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All News summaries for February 10, 2006

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