Fig. 2

Proposed mechanisms of antagonistic effect of fungal volatile organic compounds (FVOCs) toward cell target. FVOCs alter the morphology of cell walls and cell membranes (Yang et al. 2021), resulting damaging of cells and the leaking of cell contents (Vázquez et al. 2019; Gao et al. 2022). FVOCs also influence intracellular redox balance and elevate ROS levels, thus proceeding with peroxidation of the lipid membrane, disrupting mitochondrial function, and decreasing ATP production (Tilocca et al. 2019). Furthermore, the FVOCs are also possibly damaging DNA targets (Hutchings et al. 2017)