Plant microfluidic microarrays are an increasingly important tool in the field of plant science research, with applications ranging from plant growth, plant physiology, and plant adversity response.
These chips utilize microfluidics to finely control and analyze plants through tiny channels and microreaction chambers, providing new ways to study plant growth and development, metabolic processes, and plant responses to environmental changes.
The following is an overview of plant microfluidic chips, including their principles, applications, advantages, and potential contributions to plant science research.
1.Principles of Plant Microfluidic Chips
The principle of plant microfluidic chips is based on the combination of microfluidics and plant physiology. Microfluidics is a discipline that studies the behavior of fluids in tiny droplets, microchannels, and microreaction chambers, while plant physiology focuses on physiological processes such as plant growth, development, and metabolism.
Plant microfluidic chips usually contain structures such as tiny channels, microreaction chambers and microvalves, which enable fine manipulation of plant physiological activities by precisely controlling the flow and mixing of fluids.
2.Applications of Plant Microfluidic Chips
2.1 Plant Growth Research
Plant microfluidic chips can simulate the growth of plant roots under different conditions by providing precise nutrient solutions through microchannels, controlling water and nutrient supply to study the root development of plants in various environmental conditions.
2.2 Plant Metabolism Research
Through plant microfluidic chips, online monitoring and collection of plant metabolic products can be achieved. This helps study the regulatory mechanisms of plant metabolic pathways under stress conditions, providing theoretical support for improving crop quality and adaptability.
2.3 Plant Stress Response Research
Plant microfluidic chips can simulate different stress conditions such as drought and salinity stress, studying plant responses to these stresses. Precise control in microchannels enhances the understanding of plant responses to environmental stress.
3 Advantages of Plant Microfluidic Chips
3.1 High Precision Manipulation
Plant microfluidic chips enable highly precise manipulation of plants by designing microchannels and microreactors, providing accurate growth environments and nutrient supplies.
3.2 Real-time Monitoring and Collection
Combining plant microfluidic chips with online monitoring technology allows real-time monitoring and collection of plant physiological activities and metabolic products, providing more accurate data for research.
3.3 High Throughput Studies
Due to the high integration of microfluidic chips, multiple plants can be simultaneously subjected to different treatments, achieving high-throughput plant research and improving experimental efficiency.
4 Potential Contributions of Plant Microfluidic Chips to Plant Science Research
4.1 Deciphering Plant Growth Regulatory Networks
Through fine manipulation of plant growth processes with microfluidic chips, a better understanding of plant growth regulatory networks can be achieved. This helps identify key growth regulatory factors and signaling pathways, providing theoretical support for breeding crops with higher adaptability and yield.
4.2 Investigating Molecular Mechanisms of Plant Stress Responses
Plant microfluidic chips, when simulating stress conditions, allow in-depth studies of the molecular mechanisms of plant stress responses. This helps reveal the biological responses of plants to different stress conditions, guiding the theoretical development of stress-resistant plant varieties.
4.3 Innovating Agricultural Production Models
The high throughput and integration of plant microfluidic chips make them powerful tools for innovating agricultural production models. Conducting large-scale plant studies on the chip supports precision agriculture, intelligent greenhouses, and other modern agricultural technologies, improving the efficiency and quality of agricultural production.
Microfluidic chips have gradually been introduced into plant cell research, playing a unique role. Summarily, the applications of microfluidic chips in plant cell biology can be categorized into six main types: research on plant roots, research on pollen tubes, research on the toxicity of pollutants to plants, research on plant protoplasts, biomechanical research on cell walls, and other miscellaneous studies
| Plant Microfluidic Chip Types, | Applications | Advantages Compared to Traditional Methods |
| Root Chip | Monitors the concentration of free metal ions and changes in phenotypic information during root metabolism | Offers long-term real-time monitoring and high-throughput quantitative analysis |
| Root Array Chip | Monitors the dynamic gene expression over time and space. | Enables real-time observation of gene expression, and an automated imaging system can reshape the root's structure |
| Apical Growth Chip | High-throughput detection of chemical and biological stimuli affecting pollen tube growth | Provides the same growth conditions for a series of independent individual pollen tubes |
| Pollen Tube Array Chip | Captures long-term, high-resolution images of pollen tubes | Restricts pollen tubes to a fixed focal plane for precise microscopic observation. |
| Toxicity Detection Chip | Uses cell sensing to detect pollutants in the environment. | Offers higher accuracy and can monitor secondary variation frequency under chemical treatment conditions. |
| Bending Chip | Quantitatively monitors the mechanical properties of pollen tube cell walls. | Allows direct bending manipulation of pollen tubes. |
| Directional Memory Chip | tudies the presence of internal memory in different plant cells | Provides an ideal subcellular-level microenvironment for systematically examining plant cells |
| Cell Division Research Chip | Long-term monitoring of plant cell division within a small range of injuries | Requires less culture medium volume, fewer cells, and optimal nutrient supply. |
| Electrofusion Chip | Electrofusion of plant protoplasts for gene transfer research | Allows single-cell level manipulation of cells. |
| Chemical Stimulation Chip | In vitro monitoring of changes in the direction of pollen tube growth upon specific chemical stimulation. | Rapidly stabilizes changes in the growth direction of pollen tubes around the growing pollen tube, with subcellular-level resolution. |
Dxfluidics Products
The plant root chip is an innovative technology used for studying the growth and interactions of plant roots. This root chip, employing microfluidic systems and precise design, simulates the complex growth environment of plant roots in soil, providing an experimental platform for real-time monitoring of root growth, morphological changes, and responses to external stimuli. What sets the plant root chip apart is its ability to allow researchers to observe the dynamic behavior of plant roots with high temporal and spatial resolution, providing insights into plant growth mechanisms and environmental adaptability. This technology holds significant promise in the field of agriculture, facilitating research on plant responses to stress, optimization of cultivation conditions, and screening for stress-resistant varieties, thereby offering a powerful tool for both agricultural production and botanical studies
| Product Code | Outline （mm） | Height （um） | Thickness （mm） | Chip material | Price （CNY） |
| I0001 | 60*20 | 160um | 4+1 | PDMS+Glass | 400 |
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