Australian research is taking a look at new ways of enabling plants to fortify themselves against damaging UV rays, allowing them to survive harsher climates here on Earth and perhaps even in space.
Led by the Australian Research Council’s (ARC) Centre of Excellence in Convergent Bio-Nano Science and Technology, the research is looking at ways to protect plants during the hot days that are essential for them to yield fruit. Rays from the sun can cause irreparable damage to plants, but what if they could be protected by their very own built-in version of sunscreen?
While it has already been established that nanoparticles known as metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) have the ability to absorb harmful UV radiation, Joseph Richardson, a nano-engineer at the ARC centre, said some MOFs are able to turn UV rays into other types of wavelength — most excitingly, ones that plants can use to enhance the vital photosynthesis process by which they produce their own food using light.
In theory, if MOFs could be fed into plants, a whole new world of possibilities for enhanced plant protection and growth could open up.
However, MOFs are too big for plant roots to transport, and cutting the plant open to insert them would cause too much damage to their stems.
The good news is that the building blocks used to make MOFs are small enough to travel through the roots of a plant. The goal of the researchers, therefore, was to use this to their advantage and stimulate plants into creating their own MOFs.
“To our amazement, these simple materials were taken up by the plant, and grew into full-formed MOFs, in the roots, stems, leaves and other parts of the plant,” said Richardson.
But did it have the desired effect? To test it out, the team used a combination of covered and non-covered clippings, exposing them to UV light for three hours. By comparison, the treated plants wilted considerably less, with wilting being a key indicator of plant damage.
The findings could lead to outcomes that are quite literally out of this world, raising the prospect of being able to grow the crops in space, to help sustain long human expeditions. On a planet like Mars for instance, the strength of the Sun’s UV rays means plants as we know them could not survive. MOF-infused plants, however, could stand a much better chance of thriving.
Richardson said he and his team now plan to study the effects of MOFs on plant growth.
“So far we haven’t seen any damage to the plants. But all of our experiments were pretty short-term. Now we’re looking at possible long-term damage, although we think it’s unlikely,” said Richardson.
While more research is needed, including looking at the impacts of MOF degradation over time, Richardson is hopeful these MOF-fortified plants will one day be used to sustain populations in all manner of hostile environments, across our planet and beyond.
Source: American Chemical Society / Science News Students.
