A bacterial -based bunch helps plants heal their wounds

Do you have a plant with a bo-boo? Try a herbal help.

A pure form of cellulose produced by bacteria can act as a plant bandage, reporters report, significantly increasing healing and regeneration in plants. Finding, described February 12 at The advances of scienceThere are possible implications for agriculture and plant research.

Unlike animals, plants cannot escape the danger and instead rely on extraordinary regenerative skills. Bacterial cellulose – already used in human medicine for the treatment of wounds and combustion due to its biocompatibility, biodegradability and high water retention – is now found to improve plants healing as well.

Plant biologist Núria sánchez Coll and colleagues were testing cellulose bacterial patches embedded with silver nanoparticles to prevent infections in injured plants. They soon noticed wounds treated with better and faster heated patches. “This made us interested in finding the molecular cause of this process,” says Sánchez Coll, from the Center for Research in the Agricultural Genomics in Barcelona.

To prove the effectiveness of patches as healing equipment, scientists made small incisions on the leaves of two ordinary laboratory plants, Nicotiana Benthamiana AND Arabidopsis Thalianaapplying “band-aids” to half the wounds. After a week, more than 80 percent of the wounds treated were fully healed, compared to less than 20 percent of those untreated. Microscopic analysis showed that tissues in the treated wounds seemed healthy, while untreated wounds showed signs of disturbance and dehydration.

The team also found that patches significantly improve plant regeneration, especially in cloning experiments. Many plants reproduce asexually through vegetative propagation, a process used in research and agriculture to grow a young genetically identical plant from one part and another. When bacterial cellulose patches were added to the cuttings in Petri’s vessels, the plants regenerate faster, developing roots and removing faster than untreated cuttings. Intriguing, patches made of cellulose produced by plants did not have the same effect.

A chemical analysis found that bacterial cellulose contained plant hormones, probably produced by the bacteria responsible for its synthesis. Bacteria have been living with plants for millions of years, producing hormones that affect the behavior of plants for the benefit of bacteria. Researchers were surprised that these hormones remained intact despite the former sterilization of the patches to avoid pollution. “We think that the cellulose matrix is ​​as dense as the hormones, which remain bioactive,” says Sánchez Coll.

At a genetic level, the healing caused by bacterial cellulose seems distinct from the normal repair of the plant wound. Bacterial cellulose caused a different group of genes, turning off some usually involved in healing while activating others in connection with the protection of the infection. Researchers believe that this changed response results from a combination of factors: the wound itself, the presence of bacterial hormones and the plant’s response to bacterial cellulose as a foreign body, potentially causing a protective mechanism.

Although bacterial cellulose has been widely used in human medicine, this is the first time it has been found to have internal biological activity, says Anna Roig, a scientist of materials at the Institute of Barcelona Material Sciences not included in the study.

Plant scientist Javier Augustí, is also not included in the study, sees great biotechnological potential. “I would be very interested in seeing how well it works in the true crops,” says Agustí, from the Institute for Molecular and Mobile Biology of Plant Plant in Valencia, Spain,

While still in the early stages, findings suggest possible applications in agriculture, says sánchez Coll, such as facilitating grafting, storage of cut herbal material or service as a medium of growth in laboratories. Other research groups are already watching these findings at the molecular level, trying to determine whether they apply to other regeneration processes that are not yet fully understood.