Bionic plants
Nature Materials
2014년3월17일
The photosynthetic activity of plants can be enhanced by delivering synthetic nanoparticles that spontaneously infiltrate into chloroplasts - organelles in plant cells that house the photosynthetic system - reports a study published online in Nature Materials. Using nanoparticles to both enhance the native functions of living plants and impart them with non-native functions opens up the possibility of creating synthetic materials that grow and repair themselves using sunlight, water and carbon dioxide.
Michael Strano and colleagues show that, both in plant extracts and living leaves, carbon nanotubes and polymer nanoparticles containing ceria - a rare-earth metal oxide - can pierce and localize within the chloroplasts, enhancing their photosynthetic activity. The researchers show that the enhancement occurs because the nanoparticles broaden the spectrum of captured light and may enhance the plants’ natural process of removing radical oxygen species, which can damage the photosynthetic system. Moreover, they also demonstrate that the nanoparticles can enable living leaves to perform unnatural functions, such as detecting the presence of the pollutant nitric oxide.
doi: 10.1038/nmat3890
리서치 하이라이트
-
7월29일
Engineering: Just add water to activate a disposable paper batteryScientific Reports
-
7월26일
Physics: Slab avalanche origin similar to that of earthquakesNature Physics
-
7월13일
Planetary science: Origins of one of the oldest martian meteorites identifiedNature Communications
-
7월12일
Astronomy: Casualty risk from uncontrolled rocket re-entries assessedNature Astronomy
-
7월12일
Physics: Beam vibrations used to measure ‘big G’Nature Physics
-
7월6일
Biotechnology: Mice cloned from freeze-dried somatic cellsNature Communications