Although light is essential for photosynthesis, it has the potential to elevate intracellular levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Since high ROS levels are cytotoxic, plants must alleviate such damage. However, the cellular mechanism underlying ROS-induced leaf damage alleviation in peroxisomes was not fully explored. Here, we show that autophagy plays a pivotal role in the selective removal of ROS-generating peroxisomes, which protects plants from oxidative damage during photosynthesis. We present evidence that autophagy-deficient mutants show light intensity-dependent leaf damage and excess aggregation of ROS-accumulating peroxisomes. The peroxisome aggregates are specifically engulfed by pre-autophagosomal structures and vacuolar membranes in both leaf cells and isolated vacuoles, but they are not degraded in mutants. ATG18a-GFP and GFP-2×FYVE, which bind to phosphatidylinositol 3-phosphate, preferentially target the peroxisomal membranes and pre-autophagosomal structures near peroxisomes in ROS-accumulating cells under high-intensity light. Our findings provide deeper insights into the plant stress response caused by light irradiation.

Summary Acid stimulation of volcanic formations is rarely documented in the literature. A recent study however suggested its potential effectiveness through a comprehensive laboratory/modeling analysis and documented substantial permeability enhancement by dissolution of carbonate-cemented fractures in the near-wellbore area to create wormhole-like high-permeability channels. The study also presented a brief description of successful field execution, although operational details and analysis of results were not presented. This work presents in detail the field case of a multistage acidizing treatment in the Minami-Nagaoka gas field, a volcanic reservoir, and demonstrates the effectiveness of acid stimulation with 10% formic acid for productivity enhancement. The selection of a target well relies on the abundance of cemented fractures along a well. The operational design considers multiple field/well characteristics, such as low permeability; long, perforated intervals; and high-temperature conditions. Effectiveness of acid stimulation is evaluated comprehensively and justified by the integration of real-time stimulation diagnostics using distributed temperature sensing (DTS), real-time surveillance of bottomhole key parameters obtained thanks to coiled-tubing (CT) fiber-optic downhole telemetry, pre-/post-acidizing pressure buildup (PBU) tests, and production logging tool (PLT) surveys. A multistage acidizing operation was executed, after completion of a step-rate test during which a pre-acidizing DTS survey was acquired. Eight stages of 10% formic acid injection and seven stages of degradable particulate diverter placement were pumped, followed by brine displacement and a post-acidizing DTS acquisition. In all the stages, acid injection decreased the bottomhole pressure while the use of diverter increased it (by hundreds of psi), thus indicating success in acid stimulation and diversion, respectively. The stimulation almost doubled the gas flow rate just after the operation, and 10 months after the operation, the gas rate is still 1.5 times higher than before intervening. Pre-/post-acidizing PBU tests suggested a substantial reduction of the skin from 1.50 to −1.91. DTS surveying identified one major and three minor fluid-intake intervals through stimulation/diversion, and integrated analysis with PLTs revealed that the substantial improvement in gas rate was primarily coming from a narrow zone located within the major intake interval, where resistive fractures are abundant. The current case demonstrates the effectiveness of 10% formic acid for the stimulation of rocks with carbonate-cemented fractures, which was also proposed by the former study. It also shows that there is still room for further optimization in the operational design. This paper provides insights on acid stimulation in volcanic rocks and highlights its effectiveness through the analysis of a series of data sets. Readers may obtain knowledge on acidizing design, the evaluation of its effectiveness, and the interpretation of results, with lessons learned through job execution. The study will also serve as a reference to evaluate the potential of acid stimulation for the development of other volcanic reservoirs.

Light is essential for photosynthesis, but it has the potential to elevate intracellular levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS) during photosynthesis. Photorespiration is a metabolic pathway in photosynthesis to metabolise oxidised by products from chloroplasts, and it generates a high level of ROS in peroxisomes. Since high levels of ROS are toxic, plants must manage damage from ROS. However, the cellular mechanism to elude leaf damage from ROS in peroxisomes is not fully explored. Here we show that autophagy plays a pivotal role in the selective removal of ROS-generating peroxisomes, which protects plants from oxidative damage during photosynthesis. We found that a series of peup mutants, which is a defect in autophagy degradation of peroxisomes, showed light-intensity-dependent leaf damage and excess aggregation of ROS-accumulating peroxisomes. The peroxisome aggregates were specifically engulfed by pre-autophagosomal structures and vacuolar membranes, but they were not degraded in the mutants. ATG18a-GFP and GFP-2 × FYVE, which both bind to phosphatidylinositol 3-phosphate, preferentially targeted the peroxisomal membranes and pre-autophagosomal structures near peroxisomes in ROS-accumulated cells under high-intensity light conditions. Our findings provide new information to better understand the plant stress response caused by light irradiation.

Summary Unlike acid stimulation in sandstone and carbonate formations, acid stimulation of volcanic formations is not well documented in the literature, and its effectiveness and applicability are not well understood. This study aims to evaluate acidizing of volcanic rocks (especially rhyolite) as a well stimulation technique through a comprehensive experimental and modeling investigation using formation samples from a volcanic reservoir, the Minami-Nagaoka gas field in Japan. The experimental study consists of rock characterization, solubility tests, coreflooding tests, and batch reactor tests. The rock samples are investigated with computed tomography (CT) for textural characteristics and with X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis for lithological characteristics. With these results, candidate acid systems are selected, and their effectiveness in terms of the capability of dissolving volcanic rocks is evaluated through acid solubility tests. Acid coreflooding tests are performed using undamaged plug cores to evaluate permeability responses caused by acid/rock reactions under high-temperature and high-pressure conditions (300°F and 3,000 psi, respectively). Batch reactor tests are conducted to quantify damage due to secondary/tertiary reactions. The mineralogical and textural characteristics of the rock samples let us select formic acid as the preflush acid and a mixture of formic acid and hydrofluoric acid (HF) called organic mud acid (OMA) as the main treatment acid. The composition of OMA was a mixture of 9% formic acid and 1% HF or 10% formic acid and 0.5% HF in this work. Results of the coreflooding tests with the preflush acid indicated permeability enhancement in all the samples and, especially in cores with cemented fractures filled by carbonate minerals, substantial permeability enhancement was observed. On the other hand, cores treated with OMA after the preflush indicated further permeability enhancement in some cases without cemented fractures, whereas other cases showed permeability impairment after the OMA injection. Furthermore, results of the batch reactor tests with formic acid indicated low precipitation risks, whereas those with OMA suggested higher precipitation risks. Detailed analysis on the thin sections and residuals of the batch reactor tests with OMA highlighted the precipitation of unique fluorides, and the precipitation risk was modeled and quantitatively evaluated with geochemical simulations. Although there is more room to investigate the risks of the usage of OMA for the volcanic rocks, the results in this work suggest the use of formic acid as a main treatment acid, as in carbonate acidizing, for wells with abundant cemented fractures in near-wellbore regions. This paper provides insights on acid stimulation in volcanic rocks (especially rhyolite). The results provide a fundamental understanding on the acid/rock reactions and the potential benefits/risks for productivity enhancement of wells in the subject volcanic reservoir.