Regulating plant physiology with organic electronics

Abstract

The organic electronic ion pump (OEIP) provides flow-free and accurate delivery of small signaling compounds at high spatiotemporal resolution. To date, the application of OEIPs has been limited to delivery of nonaromatic molecules to mammalian systems, particularly for neuroscience applications. However, many long-standing questions in plant biology remain unanswered due to a lack of technology that precisely delivers plant hormones, based on cyclic alkanes or aromatic structures, to regulate plant physiology. Here, we report the employment of OEIPs for the delivery of the plant hormone auxin to induce differential concentration gradients and modulate plant physiology. We fabricated OEIP devices based on a synthesized dendritic polyelectrolyte that enables electrophoretic transport of aromatic substances. Delivery of auxin to transgenic Arabidopsis thaliana seedlings in vivo was monitored in real time via dynamic fluorescent auxin-response reporters and induced physiological responses in roots. Our results provide a starting point for technologies enabling direct, rapid, and dynamic electronic interaction with the biochemical regulation systems of plants.auxin | Arabidopsis thaliana | dendritic polymer | bioelectronics | polyelectrolyte

Cellulose synthesis during cell plate assembly

“…Roppolo et al 2011, Quilichini et al 2014). Furthermore, most light microscope setups use a horizontal stage so the gravity vector experienced by growing roots is disrupted during these studies, but vertical stage microscopy has recently been growing in popularity (Band et al 2012, Poxson et al 2017, von Wangenheim et al 2017. New genetic tools, such as cell type-specific or cell cycle-regulated fluorescent markers and brighter fluorophores (Sappl andHeisler 2013, Kowalik andChen 2017) have the potential to provide for the next leap in this field.…”

A Decade of Iontronic Delivery Devices

“…The most frequently used electrode material is the conducting polymer poly(3,4‐ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrene sulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) (Figure a). Several different IEM materials have been successfully used in iontronic components, first using linear polymers (Figure b,c) and advancing into tailor‐made hyperbranched (dendrolyte) materials (Figure d). The effective resistivity and selectivity are dependent on the size and configuration of the transported ionic species as well as the chemical and geometric microstructure of the IEM material.…”

“…Additionally, the effective pore size and distribution play important roles in determining a given ion's mobility in the hydrated IEM. To date, this trade‐off points toward a balance of selectivity and mobility of metal ions and charged biomolecules less than ≈200 g mol −1 …”

“…Such linear IEMs have not yet demonstrated the ability to transport larger ions. For the transport of larger or more rigid compounds such as indoleacetic acid (IAA − , auxin), IEMs based on dendrolyte materials with large, well‐defined porous structures have been investigated . However, the development of IEM materials specifically for use in iontronic devices and applications remains limited and there is an opportunity for improvements in virtually all performance characteristics.…”

“…Copyright 2015, the authors, published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial License 4.0 (CC BY‐NC). Part (e) reproduced . Copyright 2017, National Academy of Science.…”