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TerraForms: RhizoChip

rhizochip
Jayde Aufrecht holds Rhizochip
Researcher holds budding plant on Rhizochip on petri dish with tweezers

The rhizosphere’s diverse chemical, physical, and biological characteristics present challenges for ecosystem research. Over the last decade, developments with microfluidic platforms have enabled methods for studying whole rhizosphere organisms, including plants and microorganisms, under reduced-complexity conditions. But reducing the complexity of an environment inadvertently changes organism phenotype, creating biases in laboratory data compared to in situ experiments.

To avoid reducing the complexity, researchers from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and Oak Ridge National Laboratory developed the rhizosphere-on-a-chip (RhizoChip) platform that mimics the physical structure of soil.

Using microfluidics technology, RhizoChip provides a microscale soil environment that retains the physical structure of natural soils and can be used to map the molecular environment of roots.

The RhizoChip can be combined with the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory’s (EMSL’s) in-house chemical imaging and metabolomics work. Once a user proposal is accepted, researchers send seeds to EMSL where staff scientists will grow the plant for up to a month and return experimental data to the user.

Research application

Supporting the Rhizosphere Functions and Biogeochemical Transformations Integrated Research Platforms, these resources help unlock how plant roots and their associated microbiomes exchange metabolites. This essential knowledge can help us improve predictive models for carbon and nutrient cycling underground and help engineers design microorganisms for sustainable agriculture.

molecular information around a RhizoChip
Users can gather visual molecular information around a RhizoChip. (Illustration by Nathan Johnson | Pacific Northwest National Laboratory)

Available resources

  • Confocal microscopy
  • Matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization mass spectrometry imaging (MALDI-MSI)
  • Nanoscale secondary ion mass spectrometry
  • Nanospray desorption electrospray ionization
  • Laser capture microdissection
  • Sequencing

Tips for success

Users can choose which plants and microorganisms to grow within RhizoChip. This work can either be done at EMSL or at the user’s home institute. Request the RhizoChip for imaging of plant–microbe dynamics or metabolic mapping of rhizosphere compounds. Reach out to Jayde Aufrecht to discuss proposal ideas before submission.

Contributing teams and resources 

EMSL develops and deploys capabilities for the user program by conducting original research independently or in partnership with others and by adapting/advancing science and technologies developed outside of EMSL. In some instances, EMSL directly deploys mature capabilities developed by others where there is value for the EMSL user community. The following grants/activities, PI’s and teams contributed to the development of this capability: 

 Jayde Aufrecht, PN19105/3194, U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Biological and Environmental Research Program

Related publication

Aufrecht, J, et al. "Hotspots of root-exuded amino acids are created within a rhizosphere-on-a-chip." Lab on a Chip. Issue 5 (2022). [DOI: 10.1039/D1LC00705J

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