Tran Thi Linh Chi, Klein Annaleise R, Vongsvivut Jitraporn, Wang Yichao, Kong Lingxue, Yang Wenrong, Cahill David
School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Deakin University, Waurn Ponds Campus, Geelong, Victoria, 3216, Australia.
Australian Synchrotron, Australian Nuclear Science & Technology Organisation, 800 Blackburn Road, Clayton, Victoria, 3168, Australia.
Plant J. 2025 May;122(4):e70227. doi: 10.1111/tpj.70227.
Surfactants, as foliar sprays, are widely used to increase the uptake of agrichemicals through plant leaf surfaces. Study of the effects of surfactants on plants has mainly focused on investigation of the mechanisms that underlie changes in droplet behavior on leaf surfaces. However, how surfactants may affect leaf chemical composition is largely unknown. The standard analysis techniques that have been widely used for leaf chemical analyses such as mass spectroscopy require complex and extensive sample preparation and leaf tissue destruction. Here, we have used an advanced technique, synchrotron macro-Attenuated Total Reflectance-Fourier Transformed InfraRed spectroscopy (synchrotron macro-ATR-FTIR), which provides a fast, non-destructive and in vivo method to capture the leaf surface and enable the chemical mapping of essential functional groups. The development of two Quasar workflows for analyzing complex FTIR data in this study highlights and strengthens the advantages of synchrotron macro-ATR-FTIR for plant research. We found that the treatment of 5-week-old maize (Zea mays L.) leaves with a commercial surfactant, Silwet-L-77, resulted in alterations in the FTIR spectral signatures associated with lipids, proteins and carbohydrates commencing 1 h after treatment. The effects of the surfactant on maize leaf water droplet behavior and photosynthetic performance were concentration-dependent. Synchrotron macro-ATR-FTIR is thus a newly emerging and powerful analytical technique for quantitative studies in plant physiology and biochemistry, especially for plant responses to external environmental factors including both abiotic and biotic stresses.
表面活性剂作为叶面喷雾剂，被广泛用于增加农用化学品通过植物叶片表面的吸收。关于表面活性剂对植物影响的研究主要集中在探究叶片表面液滴行为变化背后的机制。然而，表面活性剂如何影响叶片化学成分在很大程度上尚不清楚。诸如质谱等广泛用于叶片化学分析的标准分析技术需要复杂且大量的样品制备以及破坏叶片组织。在此，我们使用了一种先进技术，同步辐射宏观衰减全反射傅里叶变换红外光谱（同步辐射宏观 ATR - FTIR），它提供了一种快速、无损且能在活体状态下获取叶片表面信息并实现对重要官能团进行化学成像的方法。本研究中用于分析复杂傅里叶变换红外数据的两种类星体工作流程的开发突出并强化了同步辐射宏观 ATR - FTIR 在植物研究方面的优势。我们发现，用商用表面活性剂 Silwet - L - 77 处理 5 周龄玉米（Zea mays L.）叶片后，处理 1 小时后与脂质、蛋白质和碳水化合物相关的傅里叶变换红外光谱特征就发生了改变。表面活性剂对玉米叶片水滴行为和光合性能的影响具有浓度依赖性。因此，同步辐射宏观 ATR - FTIR 是一种新兴且强大的分析技术，可用于植物生理学和生物化学的定量研究，特别是用于研究植物对包括非生物和生物胁迫在内的外部环境因素的响应。
