Which crops can resist drought?Nano sensors may provide clues

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In the current study, the researchers injected the solution into the corn leaves of their choice, partly because the crop is critical to the global food supply. The nano sensor is coated on the outside of the leaf cell and expands or contracts according to the amount of water available.

The dye molecules in AquaDust fluoresce at different wavelengths, depending on their distance from each other, and these wavelengths can be measured using an instrument called a spectrometer. When water is readily available, the nanoparticles will swell, pushing the dye away and producing a peak in the green wavelength emitted by the dye. When there is not too much water, the nanoparticles will shrink and the dye will get closer, resulting in a peak at the yellow wavelength. The researchers can then convert the emission spectrum readings into water potential measurements, all of which will not harm the plants.

Piyush Jain, a research co-author and PhD candidate in mechanical engineering at Cornell University, said the technology can be applied to different locations along the leaves to track water flow. “What this allows us to do is basically to simulate the flow of water through different tissues, from stems to different parts of leaves,” he said.

The researchers focused their AquaDust measurements on the area below the leaf surface, where the plant performs important functions such as absorbing carbon dioxide2, Which releases water vapor into the atmosphere and packs the sugar produced by photosynthesis. Researchers say that in order to cultivate crops that better manage water resources, a better understanding of water biology and behavior at these key points will be very helpful.

Eventually, the technology may be used in the real world, such as for workers in the field or in the greenhouse. It is even possible to spray AquaDust on the field one day, and then use a multispectral camera to quickly measure the water potential of hundreds of plants.

A researcher uses AquaDust in a cornfield.Photo: Zhu Siyu/Cornell University

Irwin Goldman, a professor of horticulture at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, was not involved in the study. He said that although this is still a distant development, AquaDust sounds like a useful technology. “Using any type of remote sensing technology-in this case, they are using nano-sensors-is a huge leap forward,” he said. “My feeling about this technology is that it’s the future, really.”

Goldman said breeders have been focusing on developing drought-resistant crops for some time. “For at least the past 15 years, the plant breeding community has always believed that we need to choose to improve crop resilience as part of our breeding program. It is not enough to cultivate high or high yields. Better quality, or for disease resistance. ,”He says. However, he pointed out that determining which plants are most resistant to water loss and which genes are involved in this resilience, and then pairing them with other desirable characteristics, such as good nutrition and flavor, will be a long process. “Once we have identified the genes, it is very helpful, but it does not necessarily allow us all the way to the end of the project,” he said. “We still need to find useful combinations.”

For now, AquaDust is primarily a research tool, not a tool for large-scale promotion. Farmers or breeders can use it to evaluate 1,000 plants in one hour. On the one hand, the injected solution itself contains water, which must evaporate before anyone can take a measurement. “We waited about a day for the leaves to return to their natural state,” Jain said.

AquaDust’s application and readout methods need to be improved before they can be prepared for such high-throughput measurements or commercial products. But at the same time, being able to pinpoint the water flow in plants may help researchers solve some mysteries. Stroock said one of them is whether the plant ever allowed the innermost layer of the leaf (called the mesophyll) to dry out.For many years, the traditional view was to avoid it, but indirectly measure By other laboratories It is now suggested that this is a possibility. He said that being able to directly use AquaDust for testing can fundamentally change our understanding of how plants manage water and how they deal with the stress caused by dry internal tissues.

“We believe that there are some very exciting questions that need to be answered in the laboratory, and these questions take precedence over commercialization,” Stroock said. “Right now, farmers in Iowa won’t call us and say,’Can we cover our fields with AquaDust?'”

Those farmers may just want to rain. But, one day, when these hopes are dashed, technologies like nanosensors may help them solve the problem.


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