The overall goal of this procedure is to facilitate the growth rate of plants using static magnetic fields. This method can help answer key questions in agriculture and the nutritional medicine field, that address techniques in food production. The main advantage of this technique is that it does not use any energy or fertilizers.
To begin, culture impatiens balsamina or garden balsam seeds, by placing them on a cellulose towel in separate 100 millimeter diameter petri dishes. Then, immerse the towel and seeds in triple distilled water. Measure and confirm that the indoor lab temperature is 18 to 25 degrees celsius, with humidity ranging from 65 to 75%Place three magnets of 1, 750 plus or minus 350 Gauss, underneath the garden balsam dish, with a distance of two to four millimeters between the seeds and the magnets.
Next, after placing three magnets under a second dish of seeds, stack two magnets with the north side facing up for the top magnet and the south side facing up for the bottom magnet. Then, place the two magnets together on the bottom of the garden balsam culture plate. To generate time-lapse images of plant growth, after setting up a digital camera to photograph the plant according to the text protocol, place size markers, such as a Canadian quarter and American penny and a centimeter ruler on the side of the field of view.
Then, collect 700 to 900 pictures for seven to 10 days. After using movie making software to create a time-lapse movie with the images, according to the text protocol, run the movie to verify it. After plating seeds on a cellulose towel, as demonstrated earlier in this video, place two magnets with the north pole facing up on the bottom of the 100 millimeter plate and incubate for 48 hours.
To stain the plants, place the entire impatiens SPP double flower plant into 4%paraformaldehyde and 0, 1 molar fast feed buffer and fix the plant for 15 minutes. Transfer the plant sample into a blocking buffer and incubate for two hours. Then, immerse the impatiens sample in PDS for 15 minutes to wash it.
Following the wash, add anti-alpha-tubulin primary antibodies and incubate at four degrees celsius overnight. The next day, transfer the sample to PBS for 10 minutes. Then, place the plant in FITC-conjugated anti-mouse IgG and incubate in the dark at 25 degrees celsius for two hours.
After the incubation, immerse the sample in PBS in the well of a 24 well plate and place a cover slip on the entire sample. Then, use a fluorescence microscope to observe turbulent orientation. This figure shows that under dark growth conditions, garden balsam plants only exhibited a marginal increase in growth rate when exposed to a static magnetic field.
However, the magnetic field was associated with an increased growth rate when the plants were grown under light. On day three, the difference in height between the magnet exposed plants and the controls was statistically significant. And the differences continued through day seven.
These fluorescence images demonstrate the turbulent developed into dispersed or thin structures in plants growing in the presence of magnets, compared to the control plants. Once mastered, this technique can be done in 72 hours if it is performed properly. While attempting this procedure, it's important to remember to control the intensity of magnets.
Following this procedure, apply to other model organisms can be performed in order to answer additional questions, such as rhe genetic basis of growth enhancement in a field. After its development, this technique paved the way for researchers in the field of nutritional medicine to explore a key regulator of nutrition enrichment and plant growth. After watching this video, you should have a good understanding of how to enhance initial growth of a plant using magnets.
Don't forget that working in direct contact with magnets can be extremely hazardous and conditions such as humidity, can cause decay of iron and should always be taken into account while performing this procedure.
