High-Throughput Screening for Engineered Nanoparticles That Enhance Photosynthesis Using Mesophyll Protoplasts.

Aodi Wang, Qijie Jin, Xin Xu, Aijun Miao, Jason C White, Jorge L Gardea-Torresdey, Rong Ji, Lijuan Zhao

Journal of agricultural and food chemistry 2020 Mar 18

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Certain engineered nanoparticles (NPs) have unique properties that have exhibited significant potential for promoting photosynthesis and enhancing crop productivity. Understanding the fundamental interactions between NPs and plants is crucial for the sustainable development of nanoenabled agriculture. Leaf mesophyll protoplasts, which maintain similar physiological response and cellular activity as intact plants, were selected as a model system to study the impact of NPs on photosynthesis. The mesophyll protoplasts isolated from spinach were cultivated with different NMs (Fe, Mn3O4, SiO2, Ag, and MoS2) dosing at 50 mg/L for 2 h under illumination. The potential maximum quantum yield and adenosine triphosphate (ATP) production of mesophyll protoplasts were significantly increased by Mn3O4 and Fe NPs (23% and 43%, respectively), and were decreased by Ag and MoS2 NPs. The mechanism for the photosynthetic enhancement by Mn3O4 and Fe is to increase the photocurrent and electron transfer rate, as revealed by photoelectrochemical measurement. GC-MS based single cell type metabolomics reveal that NPs (Fe and MoS2) altered the metabolic profiles of mesophyll cells during 2 h of illumination period. Separately, the effect of NPs exposure on photosynthesis and biomass were also conducted at the whole plant level. A strong correlation was observed with protoplast data; plant biomass was significantly increased by Mn3O4 exposure (57%) but was decreased (24%) by treatment of Ag NPs. The use of mesophyll protoplasts can be a fast and reliable tool for screening NPs to enhance photosynthesis for potential nanofertilizer use. Importantly, inclusion of a metabolic analysis can provide mechanistic toxicity data to ensure the development "safer-by-design" nanoenabled platforms.

Citation

Aodi Wang, Qijie Jin, Xin Xu, Aijun Miao, Jason C White, Jorge L Gardea-Torresdey, Rong Ji, Lijuan Zhao. High-Throughput Screening for Engineered Nanoparticles That Enhance Photosynthesis Using Mesophyll Protoplasts. Journal of agricultural and food chemistry. 2020 Mar 18;68(11):3382-3389