Developing a Synthetic Platform to Study the Effect of Microstructural Features on Root Interaction with Plant Pathogens

Structure plays an important role in biological systems, specifically, microstructure. Microstructural features are critical in the interaction between two biological organisms, for example, a microorganism and the surface of the plant. However, isolating the structural effect of the interaction from all other parameters is challenging when working directly with the natural system.

Biomimetics is a field combining chemistry and material sciences to imitate biological systems. As Natural systems resolve problems through structural solutions, those solutions have fascinated researchers over the years, encouraging them to seek synthetic mimics. One example for microstructural mimic comes from the lotus leaf, known for its ‘lotus effect’ – self-cleaning properties. The lotus leaf served as a template for microstructure biomimetics, to generate self-cleaning synthetic materials. The biomimetics of leaf structural features also shed light on the locomotion movement of bed bugs due to bean leaf trichomes and on the washing limitation of e.coli bacteria from spinach leaves. While mimicking microstructure of leaves was proven to be a successful research tool for studying leaf-environment interaction, no such tool exists for the root system of the plant.

We are currently working on adopting tools from the leaf microstructure mimetics field into the world of plant roots. We are fine tuning the system to achieve a reliable replica of the tomato root surface microstructure. We are studying the effect of root surface microstructure on root-environment interaction in two model systems: Root Knot Nematodes (RKN), parasitic nematode that invade the root in specific locations and Ralstonia solanacearum, pathogenic bacteria that colonizes tomato roots, but does so in a different pattern with resistant and susceptible plants.