Plant Elicitation: The Generation of Misleading and Biased Information

The use of plants' natural defenses against biotic and abiotic stresses has gained a lot of attention in the last few decades. This technique is mainly performed with plant elicitation by an array of different compounds and stimuli, including here the Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs). However, because plants can communicate with one another, chiefly using VOCs, most of these plant elicitation studies are misconducted and prone to generate misleading and biased information regarding the potential of eliciting compounds over different plants and conditions. To avoid such problems, experimental designs and trial planning must be conducted with caution. A molecule eliciting potential or different stimuli must be assessed in total controlled conditions where the possibility of the intercommunication between different treatments is brought to zero. This can be satisfied only by running trials in Completely Randomized Designs.

Automated summary

The use of plants' natural defenses against biotic and abiotic stresses has garnered attention. However, because of intercommunication between plants using Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs), most plant elicitation studies are prone to generating misleading and biased information. To avoid this, experimental designs and trials should be conducted in controlled conditions using Completely Randomized Designs.