Tim Shull

Timothy Shull

  • tim.tim@uky.edu
  • 1405 Veterans Drive
    Lexington KY 40546
  • Plant & Soil Sciences

Additional Information

ADVISOR

Dr. Jan Smalle

RESEARCH ABSTRACT (from 2017 IPSS Symposium)

"Nanoharvesting: At the Nexus of Nanomaterial Stress and Applications"

In recent years, flavonoids have garnered attention due to their potential use as natural dyes as well as their anti-inflammatory and cancer-preventative properties. Conventionally, recovering flavonoids requires destruction of plant tissue. Recently we developed a nanoparticle-based technique to isolate flavonoids from living plant tissue, which is termed nanoharvesting. This approach involves incubating plant tissue with TiO2 nanoparticles which enter cells, bind to flavonoids and are extruded as flavonoid-nanoparticle conjugates. Isolating flavonoids from plant tissue using this process relies upon the so-called “surface defects” of anatase TiO2 nanoparticles smaller than 20 nm in diameter, which possess a high affinity for compounds containing enediol and catechol groups. Previously it was shown that nanoharvesting is a biologically active process and leaves plant cells viable. Here we show that nanoparticles induce autophagy in plants and that autophagy contributes to the nanoharvesting phenomenon. Autophagy is a housekeeping mechanism and stress-response pathway that involves engulfing cytoplasmic components in a double membraned structure for degradation in the vacuole. Additionally, we show that chemical activation or inhibition of autophagy influences nanoharvesting yield.