Phenotyping volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitted by plants

Climate change, population growth and resource scarcity are putting increasing pressure on agriculture. In this perspective, progress has been made to replace traditional methods for plant phenotyping, which are destructive, time-consuming, inefficient and high-cost, with high-throughput, time-saving and highly efficient phenotyping technologies able to evaluate complex plant traits, assess plant responses to stresses, and screen desirable new genotypes. Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs), are now deeply investigated as promising markers in high-throughput plant phenotyping. An overview is given of current state-of-the-art technologies to phenotype VOC emissions at leaf, whole plant, and plant community (ecosystem) levels.