- Details
Photo: Kanchan Vishwakarma
Raghuram Badmi, postdoc in Judith Lundberg-Felten’s group at UPSC, was granted a Career-Fit PLUS fellowship from Enterprise Ireland, an Irish governmental organisation that leads the national support network for Horizon Europe. The fellowship will be for three years and is oriented on experienced researchers to work on applied research projects. Raghuram Badmi will study how Botrytis cinerea, a fungus, causes fruit rot in strawberries. He will start his new position in autumn this year in Cork, Ireland.
What was motivating you to apply for this competitive fellowship and how did you choose your project?
Raghuram Badmi: One of the main attractive features of this Career-Fit Plus fellowship is that it is designed for researchers who want to transition into industry as a ‘Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow’ as well as a ‘Career-FIT PLUS Fellow’. I realized that my skill set could be valuable in developing solutions to agricultural problems and this fellowship provided me with the right platform to act as a bridge between the academic university and the company partners. My previous work on strawberry-Botrytis interactions left me with quite a few exciting questions to pursue. I chose the most exciting and most pressing problems that the agricultural sector is currently facing and proposed to solve them by employing advanced techniques such as non-transgenic (footprint-free/DNA-free) genome editing.
With whom will you work in your future project and what do you plan to do?
Raghuram Badmi: The project involves three partners, an academic university partner, the University College Cork, a company partner, Plantedit, and a Technology Center, Shannon ABC, all based in Ireland. The main goal of this project is to develop non-transgenic genome edited strawberry plants that have higher resistance against grey mould disease caused by Botrytis cinerea fungus. The project involves interdisciplinary computational approaches to better understand the strawberry-Botrytis interactions and I also plan to employ some beneficial microbial interactions to improve disease resistance, strawberry growth and yield.
Do you think your experiences from your current research project in Judith Lundberg-Felten’s group will benefit your future project?
Raghuram Badmi: Yes of course, I plan to use my experience in working with mycorrhizal fungus to develop bioinoculant based solutions to improve strawberry growth and disease resistance. In this respect, I wish to continue my association with UPSC by collaborating with my supervisor Judith Lundberg-Felten, whose support and recommendation was crucial in obtaining this fellowship.
Which were the biggest challenges writing your proposal?
Raghuram Badmi: This proposal is the result of at least four years of continuous grant applications and the rejections that followed. I got to learn a lot on how to develop a project that perfectly fits my expertise, develop compelling arguments, and present myself as the perfect fit for the project. I would like to thank my previous supervisors at the Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research, whose guidance on proposal writing was invaluable in developing this proposal.
Do you have some tips for other postdocs or PhD students applying for similar fellowships that are funded by the European Union?
Raghuram Badmi: My suggestions to my younger self would be to identify a specific niche area and develop oneself around it. Writing is hard, and the earlier you start the better. Proposal/grant writing training programs such as for Marie Curie Individual Fellowships, Young Research Talent grants, ERC grants have benefitted me a lot and this could be helpful to many others wanting to apply for fellowships.
Career-FIT PLUS programme is launched by Enterprise Ireland and is aimed for experienced researchers from all over the world to work on research projects that are of interest for Irish enterprises. The fellows will work three years in Ireland hosted by a Third Level Institution, like e.g., a university, that is associated with a Technology Centre/Gateway. During this time, they will have the opportunity to spend a six to twelve months long secondment in a partner company.
The Career-FIT PLUS fellowship programme has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No. 847402.
Read more about the Career-FIT PLUS programme
For more information, please contact:
Raghuram Badmi
Umeå Plant Science Centre
Department of Forest Genetics and Plant Physiology
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
Sweden
Email:
Twitter: @raghubadmi
Text: Raghuram Badmi and Anne Honsel
- Details
Photo: Sonali Ranade
UPSC is offering together with SciLifeLab a tenure track position as Associate Senior Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in genomics with focus on data driven research on evolution, adaptation and biodiversity in trees. The position is part of the SciLifeLab and Wallenberg National Program for Data-Driven Life Science (DDLS). This is a 12-year initiative funded by the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation that aims to train the data-driven next generation of life scientists. Each DDLS Fellow will receive a comprehensive recruitment package and be part of the SciLifeLab and DDLS network.
Read the full job description on the homepage of the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
More information about the DDLS Fellow recruitment on the SciLifeLab homepage
- Details
Sanaria Alallaq at the poster presentation on the KBC Days 2018 (photo: Eva-Maria Diehl)
Many plants can easily be regenerated and multiplied using cuttings. Crucial is that the cutting can initiate the formation of roots, a process called adventitious rooting. Sanaria Abbas Jaafer Alallaq showed in her PhD thesis that some of the molecular regulators that control the initiation of adventitious roots in plants are similar in non-woody and woody plants like Norway spruce and poplar. She will defend her PhD thesis at Umeå University on Thursday, 3rd of June 2021.
Several economically and ecologically valuable tree species are difficult to multiply via cuttings because their cuttings do not form roots. Sanaria Abbas Jaafer Alallaq, who did her PhD in Catherine Bellini’s group at the Umeå Plant Science Centre, used the knowledge that her group and other researchers acquired with the non-woody plant thale cress and studied how it translates to the woody species Norway spruce and poplar. She demonstrated that, the initiation of adventitious roots is regulated in Norway spruce seedlings and poplar cuttings in a similar manner like in thale cress. Key regulatory factors are light and small signalling molecules, the plant hormones, auxin, cytokinin and jasmonate.
“Adventitious root initiation is a complex developmental program governed by a plethora of external and internal factors including plant hormones and light. The exact molecular mechanisms underlying this process are still largely elusive especially with respect to trees,” says Sanaria Abbas Jaafer Alallaq. “The recent availability of the reference genomes of some tree species such as Norway spruce or poplar make it possible to tackle adventitious root initiation from an evolutionary developmental perspective which we believed was a timely step.”
For her experiments, Sanaria Abbas Jaafer Alallaq grew Norway spruce seedlings from seeds and removed the roots when they were three weeks old to see under which conditions, they regenerate adventitious roots. When kept under normal white light conditions, the de-rooted seedlings did not regenerate easily adventitious roots but under red light conditions, hundred percent of the seedlings rapidly developed adventitious roots. Sanaria Abba Jaafer Alallaq and her colleagues analysed the concentration of plant hormones in the cutting base of the de-rooted Norway spruce seedlings and found higher levels of the plant hormones cytokinin and jasmonate in the seedlings grown under white light conditions.
“These two plant hormones hinder the formation of adventitious roots also in thale cress while auxin is known to stimulate adventitious rooting,” explains Sanaria Abbas Jaafer Alallaq. “We wanted to understand more how similar the regulation is on the molecular and genetic level. Norway spruce still has its limitations to do these studies even though its genome has been sequenced. That is why we included poplar in our studies which offers currently many more possibilities to study for example gene expression.”
Sanaria Abbas Jaafer Alallaq compared hybrid poplar and hybrid aspen, two closely related poplar species with different ability to form adventitious roots. She took cuttings from three-month-old trees grown in the greenhouse and placed them in nutrient solution. The cuttings of hybrid poplar easily formed adventitious roots, while the hybrid aspen cuttings did not root under these conditions. Sanaria Abbas Jaafer Alallaq analysed the gene expression in the base of the cuttings and saw that many more genes were activated in hybrid poplar than in hybrid aspen.
“We identified many key genes that are involved in the regulation of auxin in hybrid poplar while genes involved in the biosynthesis of jasmonate were activated in hybrid aspen,” describes Sanaria Abbas Jaafer Alallaq. “This confirmed that also in poplar cuttings auxin and jasmonate have opposite effects on the initiation of adventitious roots and that at least some of the underlying regulatory mechanisms were conserved during evolution. These results from our basic research are small steps that hopefully help in future to improve adventitious rooting of horticultural and forest species.”
About the public defence:
Sanaria Abbas Jaafar Alallaq, Umeå Plant Science Centre, Department of Plant Physiology, Umeå University, will defend her PhD thesis with the title “Characterization of adventitious root formation in Populus species and Norway spruce” on Thursday, 3rd of June 2021. Faculty opponent will be Professor María Carmen Díaz-Sala Galeano, Department of Life Sciences, University of Alcalá, Madrid, Spain. The thesis was supervised by Catherine Bellini. The dissertation will be live broadcasted via Zoom.
Link to Sanaria Abbas Jaafar Alallaq's thesis
For more information, please contact:
Sanaria Abbas Jaafar Alallaq
Umeå Plant Science Centre
Department of Plant Physiology
Umeå University
Email:
Text: Sanaria Abbas Jaafar Alallaq & Anne Honsel
- Details
Kristoffer Jonsson at the Poplar Transgenics Facility at UPSC
The Scandinavian Plant Physiology Society (SPPS) announced this week that Kristoffer Jonsson from Rishikesh Bhalerao’s group at UPSC is one of the two awardees that receive the SPPS Best PhD Thesis Prize. The other awardee is Bin Sun, who did his PhD at the Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences at the University of Copenhagen. Both awardees will present their work at the SPPS congress in Svalbard in August this year.
Kristoffer Jonsson defended his PhD thesis in June 2019. Several articles resulted from his thesis. Currently, he is finishing up his projects as postdoc in Rishikesh Bhalerao’s group. In December last year, he received an international postdoc grant from the Swedish Research Council to start his own postdoc project jointly at UPSC and in the group of Anne-Lise Routier-Kierzkowska from the Plant Biology Research Institute at the Université de Montréal in Canada.
“When I learned that I was awarded this prize, I was of course thrilled and honoured. My immediate thought was that this award is equally a recognition of all the people that I have worked with, especially Rishi Bhalerao. Without his guidance and the environment, he created for me, we wouldn’t have done as well as we did”, says Kristoffer Jonsson. “While I’m honoured, I’m also surprised to be selected among all the other excellent PhD colleagues, who I know also worked hard towards their goals, and who I feel are equally deserving this prize. In any case, this should also be seen as a recognition of UPSC, which is a fantastic research environment that really nurtures young researchers.”
In his PhD thesis, Kristoffer Jonsson showed that the correct transport of components to the cell surface as well as the chemical composition of the cell wall are important for differential growth during the development of the apical hook. This hook is formed by seedlings that grow towards the soil surface after germination to protect their sensitive first leaves from damage. First when the seedling reaches the surface, the hook unfolds and the seedling opens its leaves towards the sun.
An uneven distribution of the plant hormone auxin is one crucial factor for differential growth. Auxin accumulates on the inner side of the hook and inhibits there the elongation of cells. Cells on the outer side of the hook, where the auxin concentration is low, expand at a high rate and this ensures that the bending is maintained. Auxin transporting proteins are controlling how much auxin is transported in and out of a cell and thus create the auxin gradient in the hook.
Kristoffer Jonsson studied how newly synthesized auxin transporters are packed in the distribution centre of the cell, the trans-Golgi network, and transported from there to the cell surface. He showed that the packaging and the transport of different transport proteins follows very distinct routes. If components of either the packing or the transport chain are mutated and not fully functional anymore, the transport proteins are not reaching the right place and the apical hook is not developing properly.
“The auxin gradient across the hook affects the composition and mechanical properties of the cell wall and vice versa. We demonstrated that the cell walls on the inner side of the hook became more rigid in response to auxin than on the outer side of the hook”, explains Kristoffer Jonsson. “We could show that this is not a one-way regulation. Signals from the cell wall affected the auxin machinery, enhancing the auxin response on the inner side, essentially forming a feedback required for proper growth asymmetry. These findings opened up many new questions that I will address in my new postdoc project.”
The SPPS Best PhD Thesis Prize is a monetary prize that is awarded every second year together with other awards given out by the Scandinavian Plant Physiology Society. The awardee must be a scientist that defended her/his PhD thesis in a Nordic country within the last two years. All SPPS awardees are expected to give a scientific talk during the biannual SPPS Congress that will take place this year on August 24-27 in Svalbard, Norway.
More information
Title of Kristoffer Jonsson’s PhD thesis: Understanding the Molecular Basis of Differential Growth during Apical Hook Development
Link to the PhD thesis
Read more about Kristoffer Jonsson’s international postdoc grant
For questions, please contact:
Kristoffer Jonsson
Umeå Plant Science Centre
Department of Forest Genetics and Plant Physiology
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
Email:
- Details
Mustard aphid (Lipaphis). To monitor aphid feeding behaviour in great detail, a golden thread connected to recording devices was glued to its back with silver glue. (Photo: Hans Smid, Wageningen University & Research)
Researchers at Wageningen University & Research, Umeå University and Keygene have discovered that a resistance gene in thale cress (Arabidopsis thaliana) against the green peach aphid, also affects other aphids and whiteflies. However, not every aphid or whitefly species is put off. The tobacco whitefly and mustard aphid are unaffected and still feast on the plant, but for the latter this does involve an unusual spitting ritual.
Identifying the genetic code for disease resistance in plants is normally a tricky thing. A single gene can usually only offer protection against a specific disease or parasite. But this time it’s different. The research from Karen Kloth from Wageningen University & Research and her colleagues sheds new light on how plants defend themselves from insect pests – and vice versa.
Aphids are widespread on plants and agricultural crops. They feed on plant sap, but also spread viruses. Efforts to reduce the use of insecticides in agriculture therefore include a lot of research into natural defence mechanisms in plants.
Karen Kloth, a researcher in the Entomology laboratory of WUR and former postdoc in Benedicte Albrectsen’s group at Umeå Plant Science Centre, Umeå University, specialises in this area. In 2017 she discovered a gene that makes one plant species – thale cress – more resistant to the green peach aphid. In a new experiment, published in Plant, Cell & Environment, she and her fellow researchers demonstrate that this gene is only active in the so-called phloem – the cells which transport the sugar-rich sap through the plant. They also discovered that the gene works against other species of aphid and whitefly which, like the green peach aphid, feed on phloem sap.
Plant gene reduces insect reproduction and appetite
“It turns out that the tobacco aphid, cabbage aphid and cabbage whitefly don't fare so well on plants that contain this gene”, says. Karen Kloth. “They produced fewer offspring or eggs during the experiment. Detailed behavioural tests also revealed that when plants contained the resistance gene, the aphids spent more time salivating before they could start to eat, and also spent less time feasting on the phloem sap.”
Mustard aphid spits up to 20 times before it starts to eat
However, the gene doesn’t work against the mustard aphid or the tobacco whitefly. The mustard aphid displayed unusual behaviour that might disable the resistance. Karen Kloth explains: “These aphids would repeatedly inject their needle-like mouth parts into the phloem and then spit, doing so up to 20 times before they actually began to eat. This suggests that repeatedly injecting spit with special proteins helps the Mustard aphid bypass resistance."
Increasing the natural resilience of crops
The research, carried out in collaboration with Umeå University and KeyGene, was partially funded by a Veni grant awarded to Karen Kloth in 2018 by the Dutch Research Council (NWO) to carry out research into natural defence mechanisms in plants against insect pests and viruses that could help reduce the use of insecticides. “Many crops are affected by infestations of aphids and whiteflies. They are difficult to deal with, leading to the spread of plant viruses and jeopardising yields,” says Karen Kloth. “It’s therefore quite remarkable to discover that a single gene in thale cress offers protection against different species of aphid and whitefly. It’s hoped that further research will reveal the underlying mechanism at work and how this gene can be used to increase the natural resilience of crops.”
The research article:
Kloth, KJ, Shah, P, Broekgaarden, C, Ström, C, Albrectsen, BR, Dicke, M. SLI1 confers broad-spectrum resistance to phloem-feeding insects. Plant Cell Environ. 2021; 1– 12. https://doi.org/10.1111/pce.14064
For more information, please contact:
Karen J. Kloth
Laboratory of Entomology
Wageningen University & Research
+31 6 1867 1349
Benedicte R. Albrectsen
Umeå Plant Science Centre
Department of Plant Physiology
Umeå University
More about Benedicte Albrectsen's research
Text: Wageningen University & Research
- Details
We normally would have celebrated the International Fascination of Plants Day this week with a public event. Due to the current ongoing pandemic, we have postponed our event to 2022. Still, we would like to use this opportunity to give you some insights on what we are doing at UPSC. Have a look on the below videos and follow Noemi inside our greenhouses!
The Fascination of Plants Day is organised under the umberella of EPSO, the European Plant Science Organisation. Every second year, it is celebrated internationally with events taking place all over the world. The goal is to fascinate people for the world of plants. Due to Covid-19, EPSO postponed the 6th International Fascination of Plants Day to 2022 but individual events took place. You can check them out on the official homepage of the Fascination of Plants Day: https://plantday18may.org
The videos were produced for ForskarFredag 2020 at Curiosum, the new science center in Umeå.
- Details
Swedish pine forest (Photo: Sonali Ranade)
Can trees be tailored to absorb more carbon dioxide and thus help alleviate global warming? In the latest episode of the podcast “Om Vetenskap” the UPSC group leader Ove Nilsson and Skogforsk Tree Breeding Program Manager Thomas Kraft talk about how the carbon dioxide uptake in forest trees may be improved with modern technology. “Om Vetenskap” is produced by the Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research - SSF. The episode was released April 25.
The podcast episode “Hur skapas det perfekta trädet för koldioxidupptag?” (eng. How to create the perfect tree for carbon dioxide uptake?) was recorded in Swedish and is available at various podcast apps.
Background of the podcast episode (in Swedish)
https://strategiska.se/nytt-poddavsnitt-hur-skapas-det-perfekta-tradet-for-koldioxidupptag/
Links to the podcast (in Swedish)
Acast
https://play.acast.com/s/om-vetenskap/hur-skapas-det-perfekta-tradet-for-koldioxidupptag
Spotify
https://open.spotify.com/embed-podcast/episode/4dQivEZu5BmyJJWPpv28jE
- Details
Göran Sandberg at the official farewell as rector of Umeå University at Sävargården in Umeå (photo taken 2010 by Elin Berge / MOMENT
On its meeting in April, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences decided to award Göran Sandberg, executive director at the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation, with the “Äldre Linnémedaljen i guld”. The academy motivates its decision with his outstanding efforts that have promoted Swedish research and increased its international competitiveness. Göran Sandberg is professor at the Department of Plant Physiology, Umeå University, and took an active part in establishing Umeå Plant Science Centre.
Göran Sandberg defended his thesis at the Department of Forest Genetics and Plant Physiology, SLU. After post-doc periods in the USA and in the UK, he came back to the Department of Forest Genetics and Plant Physiology and became professor in plant physiology 1989. Between 2005 and 2010 he was vice chancellor at Umeå University, before joining the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation as executive director.
”Göran Sandberg’s research as well as his visions and commitment on the management level were extremely important to make UPSC to what it is now – an internationally competitive plant science centre”, says Ove Nilsson, director of UPSC. “We would like to congratulate him to this award and thank him for all his great efforts that consistently encourage us to develop our research centre further.”
The “Äldre Linnémedaljen i guld” is awarded as reward for merits for the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences or the Academy’s institutes. The Academy gives out different “Linnémedaljer” and several other prizes besides the Nobel Prizes in physics and chemistry. Together with Göran Sandberg, seven other scientists were awarded with different prizes for their efforts to promote Swedish research.
Read more on the homepage of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences (in Swedish only):
https://www.kva.se/sv/nyheter/priser-och-medalj-delas-ut-av-akademien
- Details
The two Ramalingaswami awardees Vikash Kumar (left;photo: Sunita Kushwah) and Jay Prakash Maurya (right; photo: Santosh Govind Khokarale)
The Ramalingaswami Fellowship is very prestigious in India. Only 75 Indian Nationals working in a broad range of fields within science and technology are awarded with this fellowship. Vikash Kumar, who is currently working as postdoc at UPSC, and Jay Prakash Maurya, who left UPSC by the end of 2019, are two of the 75 awardees of the competitive 2020-2021 selection.
The fellowship is given to Indian Nationals who are working overseas or who have been returned to India not more than a year ago before the application closes. For five years, fellows will receive a monthly remuneration and a research grant to allow them to build up their own research group at scientific institute, university or in a relevant industry of their choice in India. The goal is to attract highly skilled researchers that left India to work abroad by providing them an attractive opportunity to continue with their research and development studies in their home country.
“This fellowship is really a kind of boon to a young researcher who is going to start his own lab, especially at Indian universities where you get in the beginning comparatively less infrastructure facilities for the research you want to pursue than research institutes like for example UPSC”, says Jay Prakash Maurya who started to work as Assistant professor at Banaras Hindu University in Varanasi in February 2020. Vikash Kumar adds: “This gives big confidence to continue with a scientific carrier. Being among 75 gives immense pleasure to return back to my homeland, and also a big responsibility to deliver and excel in the field of science”
Vikash Kumar started in October 2014 as postdoc in Ewa Mellerowicz group at UPSC researching on cell wall biosynthesis. Since August 2019, he is working in Nathaniel Street’s group focussing on conifer genome analyses. His plan is to take up his fellowship at the Central University of Rajasthan and continue with plant cell wall research, its biogenesis and involvement in plant defence during biotic and/or abiotic stress.
“The stay at UPSC gave me the chance to learn plant cell wall biogenesis and its importance in plant growth and its potential contribution in development of sustainable ecosystems”, explains Vikash Kumar. “To move on now to a new institution, the Central University of Rajasthan, will give me ample of opportunity for further carrier establishment. I will not remember Umeå only for my carrier development, but as well for my family settlement with addition of two adorable daughters (Aashima and Sai). We are going to miss the long period of snow cover in Sweden.“
Jay Prakash Maurya joined Rishikesh Bhalerao’s group at UPSC as postdoc in August 2015 and researched on the photoperiodic control of seasonal growth. He left UPSC end of year 2019 to start a permanent position as Assistant Professor at the Department of Botany at Banaras Hindu University in his hometown Varanasi in India. He is planning to stay at his current university and do both basic and agriculturally important research.
“At UPSC I worked with poplar which is a model tree plant and whose genome is not well annotated. This led me to learn many aspects of bioinformatics and more about how to work with such not well streamed genomic systems”, explains Jay Prakash Maurya. “I will focus in my future research on seedling development in Arabidopsis, which has a comparatively simple and well annotated genome, and on tuber formation in potato, where the genome is polyploid and also not well annotated. The experience which I have gained in the last years will play a very important role in shaping my future research.”
Jay Prakash Maurya pointed out that his time at UPSC not only helped him to improve his CV with high-quality research publications in high impact journals – a main factor for getting the fellowship in his opinion. It also allowed him to expand his scientific network by getting new contacts and making new friends.
“It feels good to know to have talented good friends with a very diverse range of expertise which I could request, if needed”, says Jay Prakash Maurya. “Me and my family members had a very good time in Umeå with nice people and we miss the Swedish winter a lot. Even, my wife and kids say Umeå is the heaven on Earth, and they want to see it again at least once more in future.”
More information about the Ramalingaswami Re-entry Fellowship
For more information, please contact:
Vikash Kumar
Umeå Plant Science Centre
Department of Plant Physiology
Umeå University
Umeå, Sweden
Email:
Twitter: @Vikash3217
Jay Prakash Maurya
Assistant Professor
Department of Botany, Institute of Science, Banaras Hindu University
Varanasi, India
Email:
Twitter: @Prak16_Jay
Read more about Jay Prakash Maurya's research
- Details
The biosensor can give information about sugar levels without damaging the plant. Here it is placed in the stem of hybrid aspen (Populus tremula x tremuloides) that was used for the experiments. (Photo: Thor Balkhed)Researchers at Linköping University and Umeå Plant Science Centre, Sweden, have developed biosensors that make it possible to monitor sugar levels in real time deep in the plant tissues – something that has previously been impossible. The information from the sensors may help agriculture to adapt production as the world faces climate change. The results have been published in the scientific journal iScience.
The primary source of nutrition for most of the Earth’s population is plants, which are also the foundation of the complete ecosystem on which we all depend. Global population is rising, and rapid climate change is at the same time changing the conditions for crop cultivation and agriculture.
“We will have to secure our food supply in the coming decades. And we must do this using the same, or even fewer, resources as today. This is why it is important to understand how plants react to changes in the environment and how they adapt”, says Eleni Stavrinidou, associate professor in the Laboratory of Organic Electronics, Department of Science and Technology at Linköping University.
The research group at Linköping University led by Eleni Stavrinidou has together with Totte Niittylä and his group from Umeå Plant Science Centre developed sugar sensors based on organic electrochemical transistors that can be implanted in plants.
While biosensors for monitoring sugar levels in humans are widely available, in particular the glucometer used by people who have diabetes, this technology has not previously been applied to plants. The newly developed biosensors can monitor the sugar levels of trees in real time, continuously for up to two days. The information from the sensors can be related to growth and other biological processes. Plants use sugars for energy, and sugars are also important signal substances that influence the development of the plant and its response to changes in the surrounding environment.
“The sensors now are used for basic plant science research but in the future, they can be used in agriculture to optimise the conditions for growth or to monitor the quality of the product, for example. In the long term, the sensors can also be used to guide the production of new types of plants that can grow in non-optimal conditions”, says Eleni Stavrinidou.
The mechanisms by which plant metabolism is regulated and how changes in sugar levels affect growth are still relatively unknown. Previous experiments have typically used methods that rely on detaching parts of the plant. However, the sensor developed by the research group gives information without damaging the plant and may provide further pieces of the puzzle of how plant metabolism works.
“We discovered diurnal variation in sucrose levels in the xylem sap of aspen that had not been previously observed”, says Totte Niittylä, senior lecturer at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. “Sucrose is the main form of transported carbon in plants. We can now use this technology to study the effect of developmental and environmental cues on the xylem sap sucrose levels. This will help us on our quest to understand how trees allocate carbon between growth and storage.”
The research was mainly funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 800926 (FET-OPEN HyPhOE). Additional funding comes from: the Wallenberg Wood Science Center, the Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research, the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation, VINNOVA, the Swedish Research Council, and the Swedish Strategic Research Area in New Functional Materials (AFM) at Linköping University.
The article
Diurnal in Vivo Xylem Sap Glucose and Sucrose Monitoring Using Implantable Organic Electrochemical Transistor Sensors Chiara Diacci, Tayebeh Abedi, Jeewoong Lee, Erik O. Gabrielsson, Magnus Berggren, Daniel T. Simon, Totte Niittylä, Eleni Stavrinidou iScience 2020
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2020.101966
Link to the Swedish news on the homepage of Linköping University
For more information, please contact:
Eleni Stavrinidou
Department of Science and Technology (ITN)
Laboratory of Organic Electronics (LOE)
Linköping University
Email:
Phone: +46 11 36 33 52
https://liu.se/en/employee/elest58
Totte Niittylä
Umeå Plant Science Centre
Department of Forest Genetics and Plant Physiology
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
Email:
Phone: +46 90 786 8434
https://www.upsc.se/totte_niittyla
Text: Anders Ryttarson Törneholm