Wheat ‘cries for help’ when it experiences drought

Amazing stuff!

"An Australian study has revealed an ingenious tactic used by wheat to withstand drought conditions – it calls in reinforcements.

The plant sends out a chemical signal to attract specialised soil bacteria which release beneficial compounds that help it resist drought and continue to grow. ...

[team] revealed that, under drought conditions, wheat releases the compound 4-oxoproline from its roots to recruit the bacteria Streptomyces coeruleorubidus and Leifsonia shinshuensis which produce osmolytes – which preserve osmotic balance in cells – plant hormones, and nutrient solubilisers.

When the research team reintroduced these microbes to wheat plants in dry soils, the plants grew bigger, stayed healthier, and produced more grain, even in the next generation of crops. ...

“S. coeruleorubidus enhances wheat drought resistance by promoting plant biomass and yield through multiple mechanisms,” the authors write, “including increased hydrogen peroxide contents in the leaves, increased leaf stomatal density, and upregulated drought-resistant genes in wheat leaves.” ..."

From the highlights and abstract:

"Highlights

• Drought enriches Streptomyces and Leifsonia spp. in the plant microbiome

• Plant-produced 4-oxoproline recruits beneficial microbes under drought conditions

• Microbial rimJ gene is linked to drought response and plant metabolite levels

• Microbial reintroduction improves plant drought resistance and yield

Summary

Plant-microbiome interactions are crucial in maintaining plant health and productivity under stress; however, little is known about these interactions under drought.

Here, using wheat as a model, we combine genomics and culture-dependent methods to investigate the interactions between the soil, root, and rhizosphere microbiomes with rhizosphere metabolomes and plant phenotypes.

We find that drought conditions promote microbial colonization in plant microbiomes, enriching Streptomyces coeruleorubidus and Leifsonia shinshuensis, while also increasing 4-oxoproline levels in the rhizosphere, potentially attracting S. coeruleorubidus.

Consistently, genes facilitating microbial responses to drought, including the N-terminal acetyltransferase rimJ, are enriched, while S. coeruleorubidus and L. shinshuensis reintroduction promotes host drought resistance. Drought-legacy-effect experiments further support these benefits, with increased plant biomass and yield in the subsequent growth cycle under drought. Collectively, this study informs how drought-induced microbial and metabolite enrichments improve plant adaptation to abiotic stresses, potentially informing development of bio-based tools to mitigate drought effects."

Wheat ‘cries for help’ when it experiences drought

Drought-induced plant microbiome and metabolic enrichments improve drought resistance (no public access)

Graphical abstract

A new approach could fractionate crude oil using much less energy than crude oil distillation

Good news! Filtering by membrane! Refining the refinery! 😊 It promises to use less crude oil to refine crude oil!

"Separating crude oil into products such as gasoline, diesel, and heating oil is an energy-intensive process that accounts for about 6 percent of the world’s CO2 emissions. Most of that energy goes into the heat needed to separate the components by their boiling point.

In an advance that could dramatically reduce the amount of energy needed for crude oil fractionation, ... engineers have developed a membrane that filters the components of crude oil by their molecular size. ...

The key innovation is that the filters we developed can separate very small molecules at an atomistic length scale ...

When the researchers used the new membrane to filter a mixture of toluene and triisopropylbenzene (TIPB) as a benchmark for evaluating separation performance, it was able to achieve a concentration of toluene 20 times greater than its concentration in the original mixture.

They also tested the membrane with an industrially relevant mixture consisting of naphtha, kerosene, and diesel, and found that it could efficiently separate the heavier and lighter compounds by their molecular size. ..."

"Many chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and petrochemicals must be isolated from a mixture of various molecules. Traditional separation processes such as distillation not only require a great deal of energy but also generate large amounts of greenhouse gases.

An attractive alternative is reverse osmosis that filters liquid solutions through a semipermeable, thin membrane by applying pressure. This method has been broadly used to separate water from salts. However, it is a challenge to create membranes that can isolate molecules from a complex hydrocarbon mixture such as crude oil. ... [researchers] report the fabrication of a reverse osmosis membrane that can separate molecules from industrially relevant organic solvents. This could potentially replace energy-intensive distillation processes in industry."

From the editor's summary and abstract:

"Editor’s summary

Membrane processes may allow for more energy-efficient approaches for the separation of complex hydrocarbon mixtures. To maximize the combination of flux and selectivity, thin polymer films, usually based on amide chemistry, are put onto porous supports.

[Researchers] use interfacial polymerization to create thin film polymers with imine linkages, where shape-persistent monomers introduce high free volume into the final film ... To avoid the need for one monomer to be stable in the water phase and the other in the organic phase, the authors used an acid-catalyzed technique with both monomers dissolved in an organic phase and polymerization occurring on contact with an aqueous phase containing an acid catalyst. The polyimine films outperformed their polyamide counterparts and were resistant to the swelling and consequent reduction in selectivity that occurs with many organic solvents. ...

Abstract

Interfacial polymerization has been an industrial standard for preparing desalination membranes. Extending the same concept to molecular separation of organic solvents would be a key enabler for the decarbonization of the chemical and petrochemical industries through energy-efficient crude or biocrude oil fractionation.

Here, we report a molecular engineering approach based on acid-catalyzed interfacial polymerization for efficient hydrocarbon separation.

The design strategies include

(i) changing the linkage from amide to imine and

(ii) subsequent introduction of shape-persistent units such as triptycene and spirobifluorene.

The prepared polyimine membranes exhibit ultrahigh microporosity and enhanced swelling and plasticization resistance compared with conventional polyamide counterparts. These membranes, which feature fast and selective transport of hydrocarbons, including multicomponent and industrially relevant mixtures, outperform commercial and state-of-the-art benchmark membranes."

A new approach could fractionate crude oil using much less energy | MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology "MIT researchers’ new membrane separates different types of fuel based on their molecular size, eliminating the need for energy-intensive crude oil distillation."

A refinery in a thin film (no public access) "A thin polymer membrane can separate industrial organic solvent mixtures through reverse osmosis"

Microporous polyimine membranes for efficient separation of liquid hydrocarbon mixtures (no public access)

A membrane, pictured, that filters the components of crude oil by their molecular size