Volatile Interplay Between Microbes: Friends and Foes

Emission of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) has emerged as important mean of communication between bacteria and other organisms. Most of the knowledge accumulated so far in this field has been obtained with model organisms grown in pure culture. However, in nature, bacteria are part of complex ecosystems and communities encompassing other bacteria, fungal, oomycete, protist, plant, and animal partners. In such communities, bacterial emission of volatiles will be influenced by the surrounding partners and their own volatile emission. This chapter aims at placing bacterial volatile-mediated communication in its global context and summarizing the available literature on how interactions between bacteria and other organisms shape volatile emissions as well as the outcome of biological interactions