Phage-like particles in soil

We first tested the lifetime of our phage-like particles in soil. The soil samples can from the [http://www.moulindevelaux.com/ Moulin de Velaux] which is an olive growers cooperative in southern France. For this experiment, we put M13 phages in the soil and we let it incubate for different amount of time. As you can see, the population of phage decrease with times because they are degraded by micro-organisms that lived in the soil.

With this result, we can be assured that our phage-like particle solution doesn't polute the soil. This type of result is crucial to the autorization procedure of market release of our production. Check out our legislation page for more informations.

Test with Arabidopsis thaliana

Fluorescente PLPs in Arabidopsis thaliana leaf.

Fluorescente PLPs seen in Arabidopsis thaliana leaf petiole by confoncal microscopy. Left shows fluorencent PLPs in epithelium and right shows them in plant vessels.

In order to find the best to give the cure to the tree we tested multiple way. First, we link our phage-like particles (PLPs) to fluorochrome, thus making a solution of fluorescent PLPs. Then, Arabidopsis thaliana was given this solution by three ways :

• the use of a sting on the leaf (mimic the injection).
• infiltrations of the solution through the leaf.
• droping the solution on the leaf (mimic spray).

The control is leaf without any solution. As you can see the use of sting and inflitration are more efficient than dropping the solution.

Finally, we wanted to know if the phage is able to inflitrate the integrity of the leaf. We can see that all the cells are inflitrated with fluorescente PLPs. Thus, PLPs aren't just confined in leaf vessels.