[ad_1]
Scientists at MIT have devised a new approach to help advance a fundamental understanding of plant biology and accelerate plant engineering. They have developed a method of offering life-saving treatments to plants devastated by threatening diseases.
His method uses a series of microneedles called phytoinjectors. These phytoinjectors are made from a silk-based biomaterial, which is capable of supplying nutrients, medications, or other molecules to specific parts of the plant.
They can be made in a variety of sizes and shapes, these phytoinjectors can be injected into the roots, stems, or leaves of a plant, or its xylem or phloem.
Graduate student Yunteng Cao said: “We wanted to solve the technical problem of how you can have precise access to the vasculature of the plant. This would allow researchers to inject pesticides, for example, that would be transported between the root system and the leaves. Existing approaches use needles that are very large and very invasive, and that damages the plant. To find a substitute, they built on previous work that had produced microneedles using silk-based material to inject human vaccines. “
Postdoc Eugene Lim at MIT said: “We found that adaptations of a material designed for human drug delivery to plants were not straightforward, due to differences not only in tissue vasculature but also in fluid composition. Microneedles designed for human use were intended to Naturally biodegrade in body moisture. Still, plants have much less water available, so the material did not dissolve and was not helpful in administering the pesticide or other macromolecules to the phloem. “
Scientists had to design a new material, but decided to stick with silk as the basis. This is due to the resistance of silk, its inertness in plants and it breaks down into small particles that do not run the risk of obstructing the internal vasculature systems of the plant.
Biotechnology tools were used to increase the hydrophilicity of the silk while keeping the material strong.
For the experiments, the scientists used tomato and tobacco plants. Using the method, they observed injected materials; in this case, fluorescent molecules that move through the plant, from the roots to the leaves.
Using their method, the scientists were able to observe injected materials, in this case, fluorescent molecules, that move through the plant, from roots to leaves. They also injected an organism called Agrobacterium to alter the plant’s DNA.
Cao says: “We believe this is a new tool that plant biologists and bioengineers can use to better understand the transport phenomena in plants. Additionally, it can be used to deliver payloads to plants, and this can solve various problems. For example, you can think about administering micronutrients, or you can think about administering genes, to change the gene expression of the plant or to design a plant. “
MIT professors Benedetto Marelli said: “Until now, this is a laboratory technique that uses precision equipment, so in its current form it would not be useful for applications on an agricultural scale, but the hope is that it can be used, for example, for bioengineering of important varieties of diseases important plants for cultivation. “
“For the future, our research interests will go beyond supplying antibiotics to genetic engineering and point-of-care diagnosis based on metabolite sampling.”
Magazine reference:
- Precision delivery of multi-scale payloads to specific plant tissue targets. DOI: 10.1002 / advs.201903551
