Regulatory Mechanism of Isoprene Emission from Tropical Tree and Its Application

Abstract

Isoprene is the most important biogenic volatile organic compound emitted from terrestrial vegetation. Although isoprene emission plays a protective role in the plant biology, it imposes great impact on the tropospheric chemistry. Isoprene emission is therefore important not only for its protective role in the plant biology but also for its reactivity in the tropospheric chemistry. Emission of isoprene is controlled by light and temperature at the leaf level over short time of period. Our previous study also showed that the temperature and light responses of isoprene emissions from tropical trees differed from those of temperate plant, suggesting the uniqueness of isoprene emission machinery in the tropical plants. In this review, we describe the regulatory mechanism of isoprene emission at gene expression as well as enzyme level, and also try to refer to its industrial application for the isoprene monomer production in combination with fermentation technology.