Global breakthrough: Plants emit sounds!
IMAGE: CACTUS PLANT WITH MICROPHONES view more
CREDIT: TEL AVIV UNIVERSITY
- The sounds emitted by plants are ultrasonic, beyond the hearing range of the human ear.
- Plant sounds are informative: mostly emitted when the plant is under stress, they contain information about its condition.
- The researchers mainly recorded tomato and tobacco plants; wheat, corn, cactus, and henbit were also recorded.
- The researchers: "Apparently, an idyllic field of flowers can be a rather noisy place. It's just that we can't hear the sounds!"
Global breakthrough: for the first time in the world, researchers at Tel Aviv University recorded and analyzed sounds distinctly emitted by plants. The click-like sounds, similar to the popping of popcorn, are emitted at a volume similar to human speech, but at high frequencies, beyond the hearing range of the human ear. The researchers: "We found that plants usually emit sounds when they are under stress, and that each plant and each type of stress is associated with a specific identifiable sound. While imperceptible to the human ear, the sounds emitted by plants can probably be heard by various animals, such as bats, mice, and insects."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOWaXi0I2YE
The study was led by Prof. Lilach Hadany from the School of Plant Sciences and Food Security at the Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, together with Prof. Yossi Yovel, Head of the Sagol School of Neuroscience and faculty member at the School of Zoology and the Steinhardt Museum of Natural History, and research students Itzhak Khait and Ohad Lewin-Epstein, in collaboration with researchers from the Raymond and Beverly Sackler School of Mathematical Sciences, the Institute for Cereal Crops Research, and the Sagol School of Neuroscience – all at Tel Aviv University. The paper was published in the prestigious scientific journal Cell.
Prof. Lilach Hadany
Prof. Hadany: "From previous studies we know that vibrometers attached to plants record vibrations. But do these vibrations also become airborne soundwaves - namely sounds that can be recorded from a distance? Our study addressed this question, which researchers have been debating for many years."
At the first stage of the study the researchers placed plants in an acoustic box in a quiet, isolated basement with no background noise. Ultrasonic microphones recording sounds at frequencies of 20-250 kilohertz (the maximum frequency detected by a human adult is about 16 kilohertz) were set up at a distance of about 10cm from each plant. The study focused mainly on tomato and tobacco plants, but wheat, corn, cactus and henbit were also recorded.
Prof. Hadany: "Before placing the plants in the acoustic box we subjected them to various treatments: some plants had not been watered for five days, in some the stem had been cut, and some were untouched. Our intention was to test whether the plants emit sounds, and whether these sounds are affected in any way by the plant's condition. Our recordings indicated that the plants in our experiment emitted sounds at frequencies of 40-80 kilohertz. Unstressed plants emitted less than one sound per hour, on average, while the stressed plants – both dehydrated and injured – emitted dozens of sounds every hour."
Eavesdropping on a cut plant
The recordings collected in this way were analyzed by specially developed machine learning (AI) algorithms. The algorithms learned how to distinguish between different plants and different types of sounds, and were ultimately able to identify the plant and determine the type and level of stress from the recordings. Moreover, the algorithms identified and classified plant sounds even when the plants were placed in a greenhouse with a great deal of background noise. In the greenhouse the researchers monitored plants subjected to a process of dehydration over time and found that the quantity of sounds they emitted increased up to a certain peak, and then diminished.
Prof. Hadany: "In this study we resolved a very old scientific controversy: we proved that plants do emit sounds! Our findings suggest that the world around us is full of plant sounds, and that these sounds contain information – for example about water scarcity or injury. We assume that in nature the sounds emitted by plants are detected by creatures nearby, such as bats, rodents, various insects, and possibly also other plants - that can hear the high frequencies and derive relevant information. We believe that humans can also utilize this information, given the right tools - such as sensors that tell growers when plants need watering. Apparently, an idyllic field of flowers can be a rather noisy place. It's just that we can't hear the sounds!"
In future studies the researchers will continue to explore a range of intriguing questions: What is the mechanism behind plant sounds? How do moths detect and react to sounds emitted by plants? Do other plants also hear these sounds? And more…
Link to the article:
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2023.03.009
Left to right: Prof. Yossi Yovel & Prof. Lilach Hadany
THE NOT NAMED
The research team
Tel Aviv University
JOURNAL
Cell
DOI
Plastic transistor amplifies biochemical sensing signal
New technology paves way for sensitive bioelectronic diagnostics
Peer-Reviewed PublicationIMAGE: SINGLE STRANDS OF ENGINEERED DNA, CALLED APTAMERS, BIND TO A TARGET AND THEN FOLD TO TRIGGER AN ELECTROCHEMICAL SIGNAL. view more
CREDIT: JONATHAN RIVNAY/NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY
- Molecules in our body send faint biochemical signals when health issues arise
- New technology boosts these signals by 1,000 times
- New approach paves way for sensing signals in real-time in the body without sending blood or saliva samples to a lab
EVANSTON, Ill. — The molecules in our bodies are in constant communication. Some of these molecules provide a biochemical fingerprint that could indicate how a wound is healing, whether or not a cancer treatment is working or that a virus has invaded the body. If we could sense these signals in real time with high sensitivity, then we might be able to recognize health problems faster and even monitor disease as it progresses.
Now Northwestern University researchers have developed a new technology that makes it easier to eavesdrop on our body’s inner conversations.
While the body’s chemical signals are incredibly faint — making them difficult to detect and analyze — the researchers have developed a new method that boosts signals by more than 1,000 times. Transistors, the building block of electronics, can boost weak signals to provide an amplified output. The new approach makes signals easier to detect without complex and bulky electronics.
By enabling amplification of weak biochemical signals, the new approach brings modern medicine one step closer to real-time, on-site diagnostics and disease monitoring.
The research was published Saturday (March 24) in the journal Nature Communications.
“If we could reliably measure biochemical signals in the body, we could incorporate those sensors into wearable technologies or implants that have a small footprint, less burden and don’t require expensive electronics,” said Northwestern’s Jonathan Rivnay, the study’s senior author. “But extracting high-quality signals has remained a challenge. With limited power and space inside the body, you need to find ways to amplify those signals.”
Rivnay is a professor of biomedical engineering at Northwestern’s McCormick School of Engineering. Xudong Ji, a post-doctoral researcher in Rivnay’s laboratory, is the paper’s first author.
While they communicate vital information packed with potential to guide diagnoses and treatment, many chemical sensors produce weak signals. In fact, health care professionals often cannot decipher these signals without removing a sample (blood, sweat, saliva) and running it through high-tech laboratory equipment. Usually, this equipment is expensive and perhaps even located off-site. And results can take an excruciatingly long time to return.
Rivnay’s team, however, aims to sense and amplify these hidden signals without ever leaving the body.
Other researchers have explored electrochemical sensors for biosensing using aptamers, which are single strands of DNA engineered to bind to specific targets. After successfully binding to a target of interest, aptamers act like an electronic switch, folding into a new structure that triggers an electrochemical signal. But with aptamers alone, the signals are often weak and highly susceptible to noise and distortion if not tested under ideal and well-controlled conditions.
To bypass this issue, Rivnay’s team equipped an amplifying component onto a traditional electrode-based sensor and developed an electrochemical transistor-based sensor with new architecture that can sense and amplify the weak biochemical signal. In this new device, the electrode is used to sense a signal, but the nearby transistor is dedicated to amplifying the signal. The researchers also incorporated a built-in, thin-film reference electrode to make the amplified signals more stable and reliable.
“We combine the power of the transistor for local amplification with the referencing you get from well-established electrochemical methods,” Ji said. “It’s the best of both worlds because we’re able to stably measure the aptamer binding and amplify it on site.”
To validate the new technology, Rivnay’s team turned to a common cytokine, a type of signaling protein, that regulates immune response and is implicated in tissue repair and regeneration. By measuring the concentration of certain cytokines near a wound, researchers can assess how quickly a wound is healing, if there is a new infection or whether or not other medical interventions are required.
In a series of experiments, Rivnay and his team were able to amplify the cytokines’ signal by three-to-four orders of magnitude compared with traditional electrode-based aptamer sensing methods. Although the technology performed well in experiments to sense cytokine signaling, Rivnay says it should be able to amplify signals from any molecule or chemical, including antibodies, hormones or drugs, where the detection scheme uses electrochemical reporters.
“This approach is broadly applicable and doesn’t have a specific use case,” Rivnay said. “The big vision is to implement our concept into implantable biosensors or wearable devices that can both sense a problem and then respond it.”
The study, “Organic electrochemical transistors as on-site signal amplifier for electrochemical aptamer-based sensing,” was supported by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (grant number D20AC00002).
JOURNAL
Nature Communications
METHOD OF RESEARCH
Experimental study
SUBJECT OF RESEARCH
Cells
ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE
25-Mar-2023
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