By Zach Winn
Lanthanides are a class of rare earth elements that in many countries are added to fertilizer as micronutrients to stimulate plant growth. But little is known about how they are absorbed by plants or influence photosynthesis, potentially leaving their benefits untapped.
Now, researchers from MIT have shed light on how lanthanides move through and operate within plants. These insights could help farmers optimize their use to grow some of the world's most popular crops.
Published today in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, the study shows that a single nanoscale dose of lanthanides applied to seeds can make some of the world's most common crops more resilient to UV stress. The researchers also uncovered the chemical processes by which lanthanides interact with the chlorophyll pigments that drive photosynthesis, showing that different lanthanide elements strengthen chlorophyll by replacing the magnesium at its center.
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