Why plants are the most efficient factories
Posted on 15 February 1999
The machinery which drives a seed to a fully-grown plant is described by Professor Dianna Bowles as "an industrial process more efficient than any devised by human activity".
In a public lecture on 16 March, Professor Bowles will demonstrate how every aspect of our daily lives is dependent on plant products and how these products are manufactured by plants in a highly sustainable way. She will also discuss important discoveries at the University of York which could lead to novel plant products such as adhesives that can stick underwater, fibres with the properties of silks, and vaccines.
"Plant products are used by people every day in the food they eat, the beverages they drink, our clothes, our medicines, perfumes and in the materials used in out homes and workplaces" says Dianna Bowles. "Some of these products are easily recognisable as being derived from plants - bread, rice, cooking oils, coffee, wine, cotton, paper and linen, for example. What I hope to show in this lecture is that we now have the technology to expand the diversity of plant products."
The lecture will outline how plants can provide an energy-efficient alternative to other commonly used methods of mass production, such as the large scale culture of bacteria, fungi and yeasts in industrial fermenters.
"Natural products manufactured by living plants result from a highly sustainable process. Plants use solar energy and nutrients in the air and in the soil to make complicated new compounds which are well beyond the scope of any industrial laboratory", says Professor Bowles.
"An acorn ultimately produces an oak tree. The embryo tree is dependent on food stores packed into the acorn. Once above ground, the leaves contain the' machinery' that is driven by solar energy to photosynthesize. From that point on, continuing growth is entirely dependent on the tree's efficiency as a living factory: its production line transforms simple molecules into cells, tissues and organs that make up a mature tree. This is an industrial process more efficient than any devised by human activity".
The Merchant Adventurers' Science Discovery Lecture is at 7pm on Wednesday 16 March in the Merchant Adventurers' Hall in Fossgate. Tickets (which are free) can be obtained from Sarah Mitchell in the University's Public Relations Office on telephone 432029 or email slm7@york.ac.uk
Notes to editors:
- These annual lectures are hosted by the Company of Merchant Adventurers in their medieval guildhall in the city and are designed to be a platform for University scientists to tell the local community about ground-breaking research undertaken in York. The first two lectures were given by Professor Tim Skerry on bones and Professor David Howard on music technology.