Document Type
Article
Author ORCID Identifier
Astrid Jacobson https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1932-4393
Joan E. McLean https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9252-8683
Anne J. Anderson https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0463-2174
David W. Britt https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9753-6404
Journal/Book Title/Conference
Agrochemicals
Volume
4
Issue
3
Publisher
MDPI AG
Publication Date
7-23-2025
Journal Article Version
Version of Record
First Page
1
Last Page
14
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Abstract
Surfactants are widely utilized in agriculture as emulsifying, dispersing, anti-foaming, and wetting agents. In these adjuvant roles, the inherent biological activity of the surfactant is secondary to the active ingredients. Here, the hydrophilic non-ionic surface-active tri-block copolymer Pluronic® F68 is investigated for direct biological activity in wheat. F68 binds to and inserts into lipid membranes, which may benefit crops under abiotic stress. F68’s interactions with Triticum aestivum (var Juniper) seedlings and a seed-borne Bacillus spp. endophyte are presented. At concentrations below 10 g/L, F68-primed wheat seeds exhibited unchanged emergence. Root-applied fluorescein-F68 (fF68) was internalized in root epidermal cells and concentrated in highly mobile endosomes. The potential benefit of F68 in droughted wheat was examined and contrasted with wheat treated with the osmolyte, glycine betaine (GB). Photosystem II activity of droughted plants dropped significantly below non-droughted controls, and no clear benefit of F68 (or GB) during drought or rehydration was observed. However, F68-treated wheat exhibited increased transpiration values (for watered plants only) and enhanced shoot dry mass (for watered and droughted plants), not observed for GB-treated or untreated plants. The release of seed-borne bacterial endophytes into the spermosphere of germinating seeds was not affected by F68 (for F68-primed seeds as well as F68 applied to roots), and the planktonic growth of a purified Bacillus spp. seed endophyte was not reduced by F68 applied below the critical micelle concentration. These studies demonstrated that F68 entered wheat root cells, concentrated in endosomes involved in transport, significantly promoted shoot growth, and showed no adverse effects to plant-associated bacteria.
Recommended Citation
Cartwright, A.; Zargaran, M.; Wankhade, A.; Jacobson, A.; McLean, J.E.; Anderson, A.J.; Britt, D.W. Uptake, Distribution, and Activity of Pluronic F68 Adjuvant in Wheat and Its Endophytic Bacillus Isolate. Agrochemicals 2025, 4, 12. https://doi.org/10.3390/agrochemicals4030012