About the Speaker

Professor Masafumi Jinno received his BS, MS, and PhD from Kyoto University, 
Japan. Now, he is working in the Department of Electrical and Electronic 
Engineering at Ehime University. He works in the fields of 
plasma applications and lighting science. He is also the chairman of i-Gene, 
a university-based venture company based on his research outputs, which 
has launched a plasma molecular/gene transfection system. 

Abstract

The Importance of Current and Radical Combined Stimuli to Plant Cell for Spontaneous Uptake of External Molecular

Plant cells are surrounded by a cell wall, making directly introducing proteins and other molecules more difficult than in animal cells. However, the authors successfully introduced a Cas9 and sgRNA complex into tobacco callus (Nicotiana tabacum) using the micro-plasma method for genome editing and also successfully introduced and expressed a GUS plasmid. We also reported that in plant cells, as in animal cells, plasma stimulation induces endocytosis, a spontaneous uptake of cells, and that macromolecules are introduced into the cells. In this presentation, the role of plasma in introducing molecules into plant cells will be reported.

Electron microscopy of plasma-treated plant cell surfaces shows that the cuticular layer, which constitutes the cell wall, is thinned by plasma, creating localized gaps. Molecules are introduced into plant cells only when these gaps are formed. In other words, for molecular introduction into plant cells by plasma treatment, a pathway must be formed in the cell wall for the molecules to reach the cell membrane. On the other hand, plasma treatment does not introduce molecules into tobacco calluses treated with N-Acetyl-L-cysteine (NAC), which inhibits ROS. Molecules are also not introduced when tobacco callus is treated with a He plasma jet. These results indicate that chemical stimulation by ROS alone does not introduce molecules and that both current and chemical stimulation are required to induce spontaneous uptakes.