plant science – Lightsources.org

Cyborg plants: roots can store energy

2022/01/192022/01/20

Researchers of the HyPhOE European Project have developed biohybrid plants with an electronic root system, which could be used to store energy or as electronic sensors. This study proved the integration of circuits and electrochemical devices into the plants without damaging them, so that they continued to grow and adapt to their new hybrid state. Experiments at the NCD-SWEET beamline of the ALBA Synchrotron were crucial to shed light on the plant-based technology field.

Plants are amazing machines: not only they are solar-powered and convert carbon dioxide into chemical energy, but they are also capable of producing cellulose, the most abundant biopolymer on Earth, and can self-repair via tissue regeneration. All these factors make plants the perfect candidates for developing biohybrid technological systems, integrating smart materials and devices into their structure.

In a recent publication, the team led by researcher Eleni Stavrinidou from the Linköping University (Sweden) has presented a study about biohybrid plants with an electronic root system. They found out how to integrate circuits and electrochemical devices into the plants without damaging them, so that they can continue to grow and develop, and use them as supercapacitors or electronic sensors.

The results pave the way for using roots for energy storage and the creation of a root-based supercapacitor. Supercapacitors based on conductive polymers and cellulose offer an environmentally friendly alternative for energy storage that may also be more affordable than those currently in use. As a proof of concept, the research team built a supercapacitor where the roots served as the charge storage electrodes.

Another possible application of these plant-based systems are electronic sensors. For example, by adding a humidity sensor in the root, the information could be transmitted through the electronic root network to an intelligent system, which could act accordingly by increasing or decreasing the frequency of irrigation. These discoveries open the door to new intelligent stimulus-response applications.

This study is part of the European project Hybrid Electronics Based on Photosynthetic Organisms (HyPhOE), which involves several European institutions and aims to achieve a symbiosis between photosynthetic organisms and technology.

Read more on the ALBA website

Image: Bean plant before, during and after functionalization

Universal mechanism of regulation in plant cells discovered

2021/06/212021/07/01

In pioneering work, a German-Japanese research team at BESSY II has been able to determine the 3D structure of a metalloprotein that plays an important role as a catalyst in all plant cells. This involves the DYW deaminase domain of what is referred to as the RNA editosome. The DYW domain alters messenger RNA nucleotides in chloroplasts and mitochondria and contains a zinc ion whose activity is controlled by a very unusual mechanism. The team has now been able to describe this mechanism in detail for the first time. Their study, published in Nature Catalysis, is considered a breakthrough in the field of plant molecular biology and has far-reaching implications for bioengineering.

All plant cells obtain their energy mainly from two organelles they contain – chloroplasts (responsible for photosynthesis) and mitochondria (responsible for the biochemical cycle of respiration that converts sugars into energy). However, a large number of a plant cell’s genes in its mitochondria and chloroplasts can develop defects, jeopardising their function. Nevertheless, plant cells evolved an amazing tool called the RNA editosome (a large protein complex) to repair these kinds of errors. It can modify defective messenger RNA that result from defective DNA by transforming (deamination) of certain mRNA nucleotides.

Read more on the HZB website

Image: Around the catalytic centre is a group of molecules, the gating domain, which can occupy two different positions.

Credit: © M. Künsting / HZB

Stopping yellow spot fungus that attacks wheat crops

2020/01/142020/01/23

Scientists from the Centre for Crop and Disease Management (CCDM) and Curtin University in Western Australia have used an advanced imaging technique at the Australian Synchrotron for an in-depth look at how a fungus found in wheat crops is damaging its leaves.

Prof Mark Gibberd, director of the Centre, said the investigation was thought to be one of the first that utilised high-resolution X-ray imaging to examine biotic stress related to fungal infection in wheat.
Using X-ray fluorescence microscopy (XFM) on leaf samples collected from wheat plants, the team, which included project leader Dr Fatima Naim and ARC Future Fellow Dr Mark Hackett, mapped specific elements in the leaves in and around points of infection.

“Our research project looks at the physiological impact of plant diseases, such as yellow spot, on the function of leaves” said Gibberd.
Yellow spot is a ubiquitous fungal disease caused by Pyrenophora tritici-repentis (Ptr). It can reduce grain yields by up to 20 per cent – a significant amount which could be the difference between a profitable and non-profitable crop for a farmer.
In Australia, it is one of the most costly diseases to the wheat industry, with wheat yield losses due to yellow spot estimated at over $210 million per year.

>R ead more on the Autralisan Synchrotron at ANSTO website

Image: FM image reveals elements present in yellow spot fungs and the wheat leaves.
Credit: Curtin University

Plant roots police toxic pollutants

2018/08/062018/08/09

X-ray studies reveal details of how P. juliflora shrub roots scavenge and immobilize arsenic from toxic mine tailings.

Working in collaboration with scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory and SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, researchers at the University of Arizona have identified details of how certain plants scavenge and accumulate pollutants in contaminated soil. Their work revealed that plant roots effectively “lock up” toxic arsenic found loose in mine tailings—piles of crushed rock, fluid, and soil left behind after the extraction of minerals and metals. The research shows that this strategy of using plants to stabilize pollutants, called phytostabilization, could even be used in arid areas where plants require more watering, because the plant root activity alters the pollutants to forms that are unlikely to leach into groundwater.

The Arizona based researchers were particularly concerned with exploring phytostabilization strategies for mining regions in the southwestern U.S., where tailings can contain high levels of arsenic, a contaminant that has toxic effects on humans and animals. In the arid environment with low levels of vegetation, wind and water erosion can carry arsenic and other metal pollutants to neighboring communities.

Image: Scientists from the University of Arizona collect plant samples from the mine tailings at the Iron King Mine and Humboldt Smelter Superfund site in central Arizona. X-ray studies at Brookhaven Lab helped reveal how these plants’ roots lock up toxic forms of arsenic in the soil.
Credit: Jon Chorover

Advanced imaging technique used to study triggers of tree mortality

2018/06/292018/07/04

Researchers are using advanced imaging technologies similar to those used in hospitals, including micro-computed tomography on the Imaging and Medical beamline (IMBL) at the Australian Synchrotron, to determine how vulnerable our trees are to drought and heatwaves.
A new scientific review published In Nature outlines progress towards understanding the likely risks from droughts and heatwaves that combine to kill millions of trees around the world with spectacular effects on the environment.

Recent drought and heatwave conditions in northern Australia have killed more than 7000ha of mangrove forests, leaving these essential ecosystems stark, grey skeletons of trees. In California, the prolonged drought period has killed more than 100 million trees that increase the intensity of wildfires and impact on the region’s beauty, tourism and environmental health.
Dead trees, of course, cannot store carbon out of the air and the enormous numbers of dead trees release large quantities of stored carbon back into the air as they are burned or decay, further amplifying the effects of rising carbon dioxide.

Image: IMBL robot positions the tree for imaging.

Scientists explore how slow release fertilizer behaves in soil

2018/04/252018/04/26

Testing soil samples at the Canadian Light Source has helped a University of Saskatchewan soil scientist understand how tripolyphosphate (TPP), a slow release form of phosphorus fertilizer, works in the soil as a plant nutrient for much longer periods than previously thought.

Jordan Hamilton says the research also has implications for ongoing efforts by U of S soil scientists to use phosphorous-rich materials to clean up contaminated petroleum sites.

Hamilton, now a post-doctoral fellow working within U of S professor Derek Peak’s Environmental Soil Chemistry group, had a chapter of his PhD thesis, “Chemical speciation and fate of tripolyphosphate after application to a calcareous soil,” published earlier this year in the online journal Geochemical Transactions.

TPP needs to break down into a simpler form of phosphate in order to be used as a nutrient by plants. In most types of soil, the belief was that TPP would break down right away, says Hamilton.

“I would definitely say the biggest surprise is how quickly the TPP adsorbed (attached itself) to mineral sources, especially in these calcium-rich soils,” he said. “For the longer term, it was surprising to see it persist.”

New screening technique will allow crop breeders to develop drought resistant varieties faster

2017/12/062018/04/25

Scientists from the Canadian Light Source (CLS) have teamed up with researchers from the University of Saskatchewan to develop a new technique to examine drought tolerance in wheat.

Chithra Karunakaran and Karen Tanino’s team developed a simple non-destructive method to screen hundreds of wheat leaf samples in a day, reducing the time and cost associated with traditional breeding programs to select varieties for drought tolerance. Their findings were published in the November issue of Physiologia Plantarum.

“Developing these types of tools better enables physiologists to complement breeding programs,” says Tanino, Professor of Plant Sciences at the U of S.