Lavandula angustifolia Mill. a model of aromatic and medicinal plant to study volatile organic compounds synthesis, evolution and ecological functions

ABSTRACT

Lavandula angustifolia Mill. or true lavender is an emblematic plant from dry and calcareous hills of the south of France. Lavender essential oils obtained from inflorescences harvested at bloom stage are mainly composed of monoterpenes and few sesquiterpenes. The characteristic lavender smell is due to linalool and linalyl acetate that represent more than half of the emitted volatile organic compound (VOC) quantity. These monoterpenoids are derived from plastidial pathway precursors. The regulation of this pathway in lavender is mainly managed by the successive expression of two DXS during flower development. In the light of 10 years of published data on lavender, it appears that biochemical pathways of main terpenes are mostly depicted. Several transcriptomic libraries are available and a genome at chromosome scale has been assembled and molecular markers developed. The diversity of lavender terpenes and their biosynthesis are reviewed with additional original data regarding the anatomical glandular structures and expression of genes involved in IPP biosynthesis.

KEYWORDS:

• Specialized metabolism
• terpene biosynthesis pathways
• glandular trichomes
• genomic

Acknowledgments

We thank Jean-Claude Caissard, Jean-Louis Magnard and Denis Saint-Marcoux for fruitful scientific discussions. We thank Pr Monique Colson posthumously for the pictures of SEM.

Author contributions

Aurélie Rius-Bony performed expression analyses of all genes under this study.

Mathias Fontez contributed to GC-MS data analysis, statistical analysis, compilation of articles and performed critical reading of the manuscript.

Frederic Jullien & Sandrine Moja designed the experimental study, collected and analyzed samples by GC-MS and wrote the manuscript. They brought equivalent contribution to the experimental work and manuscript writing.

Florence Nicole collaborated to the manuscript preparation.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/23818107.2022.2154839

Additional information

Funding

This work was granted by a PhD fellowship from the French Ministry of Research