Collaborative Research: IDBR: TYPE A : The NANAPHID: A novel aphid-like nanosensor network for real-time measurements of carbohydrates in live plant tissue

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An award is made to the University at Albany (SUNY) and several collaborating organizations, including two other SUNY campuses (SUNY Polytechnic Institute and SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry) and Boston University, to construct and test an aphid-like nanobiosensor whose purpose is to enable real-time monitoring of sugars in living plant tissues. Graduate and undergraduate students will participate in the development of NANAPHID technology. The results obtained in the process of NANAPHID development will be disseminated to the community through lectures, student laboratory exercises and field trips. The project will include a unique Website used to broadcast webinars addressing NANAPHID design, its capabilities, and the latest research results. The NANAPHID will make routine measurements of sugars that will benefit many biological research communities including plant ecologists, investigators at NSF-funded Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) sites, and scientists involved in a broad range of experimental and modelling studies of terrestrial carbon cycling. Applications in crop plant research and management are also promising. For example, the sensor has the potential to replace refractometry as the method of choice for volumetric analysis of sugars. Non-structural carbohydrates (NSCs) are the currency of energy and growth allocation within plants. These products of photosynthesis are circulated as soluble sugars, whose concentrations are estimated using destructive analytical techniques that have difficulties distinguishing sugars in plant sap from associated cellular materials that get mixed into samples. NANAPHID technology will make real-time in situ measurements of NSC using concentrations in stems, roots, and branches and provide biologists with many new opportunities to monitor critical changes in resource allocation in plants. Tracking these changes in living plants is necessary for directly testing the effect of many environmental changes such as climate, diseases, atmospheric nutrient loads, and acidic deposition.