Towards a photo-herbicide: synthesis and studies of water-soluble fluorescent tagged porphyrins, from solution to plant cells

Informations

Funding country

France

Acronym

PorphyPlant

URL

-

Start date

1/7/2013

End date

-

Budget

228,966 EUR

Fundings

Abstract

Biodiversity, environment preservation and health safety are the main challenges of agronomy. Search for new active herbicide that are plant-specific, non-toxic to wildlife, biodegradable by microorganisms and non-polluting groundwater, is thus primordial. Porphyrins and chlorines, naturally present in all living kingdom, seem to us to be good candidates to meet these multiple expectations. Indeed, these sunlight-photoexcitable molecules are able to induce cell death via the formation of oxygen reactive species (ROS) and present the advantage to have a very low toxicity in the absence of light. In order to achieve this Young Researchers ANR project “Porphyplant - Towards a photo-herbicide: synthesis and studies of fluorescent tagged porphyrins, from solution to plant cells”, three main aspects which require transversal competences will be developed. First, anionic and cationic hydrosoluble porphyrins tagged with fluorescein will be studied by molecular modeling. Second, and following the theoretical recommendation, synthesis, steady-state and time-resolved photophysical studies in water will be engaged. Third, porphyrins, without tag, effect will be analyzed in tobacco cells at the molecular and cellular levels after photoactivation. The conjugated pophyrins will then be used to precisely monitor their fate and their induced ROS production, especially singlet oxygen and radical oxygen, in plant cells, by In Situ imagery. These different approaches will allow investigating the fate of porphyrins in tobacco cells and the induction of apoptosis in order to develop a new herbicidal strategy in plant.