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Title: Plasmonic nanorod probes’ journey inside plant cells for in vivo SERS sensing and multimodal imaging

Abstract

Nanoparticle-based platforms are gaining strong interest in plant biology and bioenergy research to monitor and control biological processes in whole plants. However, in vivo monitoring of biomolecules using nanoparticles inside plant cells remains challenging due to the impenetrability of the plant cell wall to nanoparticles beyond the exclusion limits (5–20 nm). To overcome this physical barrier, we have designed unique bimetallic silver-coated gold nanorods (AuNR@Ag) capable of entering plant cells, while conserving key plasmonic properties in the near-infrared (NIR). To demonstrate cellular internalization and tracking of the nanorods inside plant tissue, we used a comprehensive multimodal imaging approach that included transmission electron microscopy (TEM), confocal fluorescence microscopy, two-photon luminescence (TPL), X-ray fluorescence microscopy (XRF), and photoacoustics imaging (PAI). We successfully acquired SERS signals of nanorods in vivo inside plant cells of tobacco leaves. On the same leaf samples, we applied orthogonal imaging methods, TPL and PAI techniques for in vivo imaging of the nanorods. Here this study first demonstrates the intracellular internalization of AuNR@Ag inside whole plant systems for in vivo SERS analysis in tobacco cells. This work demonstrates the potential of this nanoplatform as a new nanotool for intracellular in vivo biosensing for plant biology.

Authors:
 [1];  [1];  [2];  [1]; ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [1];  [1];  [3];  [3];  [4];  [5];  [6];  [5];  [1];  [3];  [5]; ORCiD logo [1]
  1. Fitzpatrick Institute for Photonics, Durham, NC (United States); Duke University, Durham, NC (United States)
  2. Fitzpatrick Institute for Photonics, Durham, NC (United States)
  3. Duke University, Durham, NC (United States)
  4. Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Sofia (Bulgaria); Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
  5. Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Lemont, IL (United States)
  6. Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Lemont, IL (United States); Northwestern University, Evanston, IL (United States)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC); National Science Foundation (NSF); Fitzpatrick Foundation Scholars Award; NDSEG Fellowship
OSTI Identifier:
1970364
Alternate Identifier(s):
OSTI ID: 1961899
Grant/Contract Number:  
AC02-06CH11357; ECCS-2025064; SC0019393
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Nanoscale
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 15; Journal Issue: 13; Journal ID: ISSN 2040-3364
Publisher:
Royal Society of Chemistry
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
77 NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY; plasmonics; surface-enhanced Raman scattering; cell; infiltration; plants; nanorods; nanosensor

Citation Formats

Cupil-Garcia, Vanessa, Li, Joy Q., Norton, Stephen J., Odion, Ren A., Strobbia, Pietro, Menozzi, Luca, Ma, Chenshuo, Hu, Jianhong, Zentella, Rodolfo, Boyanov, Maxim I., Finfrock, Y. Zou, Gursoy, Doga, Douglas, Deirdre Sholto, Yao, Junjie, Sun, Tai-Ping, Kemner, Kenneth M., and Vo-Dinh, Tuan. Plasmonic nanorod probes’ journey inside plant cells for in vivo SERS sensing and multimodal imaging. United States: N. p., 2023. Web. doi:10.1039/d2nr06235f.
Cupil-Garcia, Vanessa, Li, Joy Q., Norton, Stephen J., Odion, Ren A., Strobbia, Pietro, Menozzi, Luca, Ma, Chenshuo, Hu, Jianhong, Zentella, Rodolfo, Boyanov, Maxim I., Finfrock, Y. Zou, Gursoy, Doga, Douglas, Deirdre Sholto, Yao, Junjie, Sun, Tai-Ping, Kemner, Kenneth M., & Vo-Dinh, Tuan. Plasmonic nanorod probes’ journey inside plant cells for in vivo SERS sensing and multimodal imaging. United States. https://doi.org/10.1039/d2nr06235f
Cupil-Garcia, Vanessa, Li, Joy Q., Norton, Stephen J., Odion, Ren A., Strobbia, Pietro, Menozzi, Luca, Ma, Chenshuo, Hu, Jianhong, Zentella, Rodolfo, Boyanov, Maxim I., Finfrock, Y. Zou, Gursoy, Doga, Douglas, Deirdre Sholto, Yao, Junjie, Sun, Tai-Ping, Kemner, Kenneth M., and Vo-Dinh, Tuan. Mon . "Plasmonic nanorod probes’ journey inside plant cells for in vivo SERS sensing and multimodal imaging". United States. https://doi.org/10.1039/d2nr06235f. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1970364.
@article{osti_1970364,
title = {Plasmonic nanorod probes’ journey inside plant cells for in vivo SERS sensing and multimodal imaging},
author = {Cupil-Garcia, Vanessa and Li, Joy Q. and Norton, Stephen J. and Odion, Ren A. and Strobbia, Pietro and Menozzi, Luca and Ma, Chenshuo and Hu, Jianhong and Zentella, Rodolfo and Boyanov, Maxim I. and Finfrock, Y. Zou and Gursoy, Doga and Douglas, Deirdre Sholto and Yao, Junjie and Sun, Tai-Ping and Kemner, Kenneth M. and Vo-Dinh, Tuan},
abstractNote = {Nanoparticle-based platforms are gaining strong interest in plant biology and bioenergy research to monitor and control biological processes in whole plants. However, in vivo monitoring of biomolecules using nanoparticles inside plant cells remains challenging due to the impenetrability of the plant cell wall to nanoparticles beyond the exclusion limits (5–20 nm). To overcome this physical barrier, we have designed unique bimetallic silver-coated gold nanorods (AuNR@Ag) capable of entering plant cells, while conserving key plasmonic properties in the near-infrared (NIR). To demonstrate cellular internalization and tracking of the nanorods inside plant tissue, we used a comprehensive multimodal imaging approach that included transmission electron microscopy (TEM), confocal fluorescence microscopy, two-photon luminescence (TPL), X-ray fluorescence microscopy (XRF), and photoacoustics imaging (PAI). We successfully acquired SERS signals of nanorods in vivo inside plant cells of tobacco leaves. On the same leaf samples, we applied orthogonal imaging methods, TPL and PAI techniques for in vivo imaging of the nanorods. Here this study first demonstrates the intracellular internalization of AuNR@Ag inside whole plant systems for in vivo SERS analysis in tobacco cells. This work demonstrates the potential of this nanoplatform as a new nanotool for intracellular in vivo biosensing for plant biology.},
doi = {10.1039/d2nr06235f},
journal = {Nanoscale},
number = 13,
volume = 15,
place = {United States},
year = {Mon Mar 13 00:00:00 EDT 2023},
month = {Mon Mar 13 00:00:00 EDT 2023}
}

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