Epsilon Archive for Student Projects

Abstract

Agriculture today largely consists of monocultures with pure stands, characterized by high yields but associated with biodiversity loss, pest outbreaks, and reduced resilience to environmental stresses. Increasing plant diversity through cultivar mixtures offers an alternative, promoting ecosystem services, yield stability, and pest management. However, the mechanisms underlying the superior performance of cultivar mixtures remain poorly understood. This thesis investigates volatile-mediated plant-plant interactions among barley cultivars with distinct growth strategies. Using a controlled experiment, we examined how volatiles emitted by one cultivar influenced the growth and gene expression of another receiving cultivar. Results revealed that cultivar-specific volatile cues altered biomass production in receivers, with fast-growing emitters inducing greater growth in slow-growing receivers. Differential expression analysis showed distinct gene expression changes in receivers, suggesting that these changes may underlie the observed growth differences between cultivars. These findings provide insights into the role of volatiles in plant interactions and highlight their potential for optimizing cultivar mixtures in sustainable agriculture. Future research should aim to establish a clear link between specific VOCs, gene expression, and growth responses, while also exploring field-scale applications of these interactions.