Aphid colonization on tansy influenced by emitted terpenes

Tansy plants (Tanacetum vulgare L.) have diverse ethnobotanical uses including that of insect repellent, as a consequence of their production of volatile terpenes. Clancy et al. investigated the diversity of these emitted terpenes, and how they affect colonization by aphids and the ants that tend them in plants from a single field site. The authors show that the methods used to collect and analyze terpenes influences their findings. By using different methods, they identified compounds constitutively stored, induced and emitted, and emitted from storage, with the latter group showing stable profiles from individual plants and their clones. Further, the profiles of these emitted-from-storage compounds, including less abundant ones, were correlated with aphid colonization. Sci. Rep. 10.1038/srep38087