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R E V I E W The function of terpene natural products in the natural world Jonathan Gershenzon1 Natalia Dudareva2 As the largest class of natural products, terpenes have a variety of roles in mediating antagonistic and beneficial interactions among organisms. They defend many species of plants, animals and microorganisms against predators, pathogens and competitors, and they are involved in conveying messages to conspecifics and mutualists regarding the presence of food, mates and enemies. Despite the diversity of terpenes known, it is striking how phylogenetically distant organisms have come to use similar structures for common purposes. New natural roles undoubtedly remain to be discovered for this large class of compounds, given that such a small percentage of terpenes has been investigated so far. The word ‘biodiversity’ is on nearly everyone’s lips these days, but Armaments against antagonists ‘chemodiversity’ is just as much a characteristic of life on Earth as Perhaps the best way to appreciate the general role of terpenes in the biodiversity. Living organisms produce thousands and thousands of defense of many types of organisms is to consider a large group of different structures of low-molecular-weight organic compounds. Many terpenes, such as the drimane sesquiterpenes (Fig. 1), which are of these have no apparent function in the basic processes of growth and widespread in plants, fungi and certain marine organisms3. Drimanes development, and have been historically referred to as natural products have potent antibacterial4 and antifungal5 activity, and they are toxic to insects6 7 8 or secondary metabolites. The importance of natural products in , nematodes , mollusks and fish . I