RUI: Hydropowered Plants: How Primitive Land Plants Reproduce by Harnessing Mechanical Energy from Water

Liverworts are believed to have been the very first land plants, and Marchantia polymorpha has for a long time been a modern representative of its primitive ancestry. Recently, this plant has emerged as an important new model system in plant biology, both as a candidate for genetic manipulation and other questions in evolutionary and molecular biology.

Yet despite all of this study, investigating how these plants harness mechanical energy from water, and capillary interaction energy in particular, opens a new area of biophysical research. The principle goal of this project will be the investigation of the fundamental physics underlying these mechanical interactions between land plants and water, with particular emphasis on the essential, minimal physical features of the botanical systems that enable function and promote both reproductive fitness.

Beyond the specific example of Marchantia polymorpha, the experiments are also designed to further our fundamental understanding of how plants can evolve to harness different mechanical energy sources. It also opens the door to new studies of the behavior of botanical particles adsorbed to liquid interfaces. The project will also have a significant impact on the education and training of the next generation of young scientists at Williams College.

Students working in the research lab will have daily opportunities to build upon coursework and gain practical experience working with materials, microscopes, data acquisition, image analysis, and more. Over the past two years, the PI has supervised 18 undergraduate students for full- or part-time research, including several URM students.

This project, located at an undergraduate institution, will study how botanical systems harness mechanical energy from water to facilitate their reproductive processes. The PI will center the study on the reproduction mechanisms of the primitive land plant Marchantia polymorpha, a common liverwort. The work will particularly focus on how these plants effect motion and direct self-assembly using surface energy through capillary interactions, as well as the interaction of surface tension and splashing mechanics to facilitate distribution of reproductive material.

The physics is critical to the reproductive fitness of Marchantia polymorpha, and to study the physical mechanisms will use systematic experiments, theoretical modeling, and whole-plant studies.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.