Trafficking and subcellular localization of multiwalled carbon nanotubes in plant cells.

Maged F Serag (1, 2) , Noritada Kaji (1, 2) , Claire Gaillard (3) , Yukihiro Okamoto (1, 2) , Kazuyoshi Terasaka (4) , Mohammad Jabasini (1) , Manabu Tokeshi (1, 2) , Hajime Mizukami (4) , Alberto Bianco (3) , Yoshinobu Baba (1, 2, 5)

1 Department of Applied Chemistry
2 FIRST - Research Center for Innovative Nanobiodevice
3 ICT - Immunologie et chimie thérapeutiques
4 Department of Pharmacognosy
5 AIST - National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology

Major barriers to delivery of biomolecules are crossing the cellular membranes and achieving a high cytoplasmic concentration by circumventing entrapment into endosomes and other lytic organelles. Motivated by such aim, we have investigated the capability of multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) to penetrate the cell membrane of plant protoplasts (plant cells made devoid of their cell walls via enzymatic treatment) and studied their internalization mechanism via confocal imaging and TEM techniques. Our results indentified an endosome-escaping uptake mode of MWCNTs by plant protoplasts. Moreover, short MWCNTs (<100 nm) were observed to target specific cellular substructures including the nucleus, plastids, and vacuoles. These findings are expected to have a significant impact on plant cell biology and transformation technologies.

Domaines: Biologie moléculaire; Biotechnologies; Biotechnologie

Maged F Serag, Noritada Kaji, Claire Gaillard, Yukihiro Okamoto, Kazuyoshi Terasaka, et al.. Trafficking and subcellular localization of multiwalled carbon nanotubes in plant cells.. ACS Nano, 2011, 5 (1), pp.493-9. ⟨10.1021/nn102344t⟩. ⟨hal-00557073⟩