Hypothetically, if one could administer a constant supply of glucose or some other sugar into a plant's stem, such as an IV tube, could the plant be kept alive without light? And if so, how would that affect its growth? Would its size be dependent on the amount of glucose administered? Without sunlight, would it not grow leaves, or grow leaves without chlorophyll?

Edited May 25, 201510 yr by gretchenfrage

Hypothetically, if one could administer a constant supply of glucose or some other sugar into a plant's stem, such as an IV tube, could the plant be kept alive without light? And if so, how would that affect its growth? Would its size be dependent on the amount of glucose administered? Without sunlight, would it not grow leaves, or grow leaves without chlorophyll?

 

One thing is that sunlight not only triggers photosynthesis, but also controls other processes in plant growth. Luckily, this has already been done by using an artificially created substance that made plants "believe" they are in sunlight while in fact they were kept in total darkness:

 

http://www.kit.edu/kit/english/pi_2012_10419.php

http://www.plantcell.org/content/early/2012/05/10/tpc.111.094656

 

In the experiment I referred above researchers didn't administer any sugars to plants, but it seems quite reasonable to assume that since plants can technically survive in darkness for a bit it's possible to develop nutrient feeding system that will allow them to grow in darkness too. I haven't seen any links to such experiments, though.

 

One thing is that sunlight not only triggers photosynthesis, but also controls other processes in plant growth. Luckily, this has already been done by using an artificially created substance that made plants "believe" they are in sunlight while in fact they were kept in total darkness:

 

http://www.kit.edu/kit/english/pi_2012_10419.php

http://www.plantcell.org/content/early/2012/05/10/tpc.111.094656

 

In the experiment I referred above researchers didn't administer any sugars to plants, but it seems quite reasonable to assume that since plants can technically survive in darkness for a bit it's possible to develop nutrient feeding system that will allow them to grow in darkness too. I haven't seen any links to such experiments, though.

So we could hypothetically create a Matrix for plants, where they "think" they're out in a sunny field somewhere but are actually in their own individual little bubbles connected to feeding tubes.