Chemical compounds released by microbes, animals and plants into their environment can be used as signals (infochemicals) in food webs. A key challenge for NIOO is to understand how the exchange of chemical information shapes biotic interactions and the evolution of species in aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. Our aims are:
Exploring bioactive metabolites and ways of chemical communication will result in novel sustainable natural compounds to be used in biotechnology and healthcare as antimicrobials, elicitors, signals or bio-indicators.
We like the scent of humid soil after a rainshower. What we smell is geosmin, a volatile produced by bacteria living in the soil.