As we have shown (Fig. ), if a sufficiently large droplet could be established by one of these unknown mechanisms, it is possible that the free energy change for desorption from the membrane to the exudate phase is reduced substantially (Fig. ). The reduction in free energy when desorbing into an organic phase is similar to what was observed for desorbing terpenes from the membrane to an organic phase in prior computational studies. Just as in microbial engineering studies where products must be exported non-destructively, and so non-polar solvents are frequently used for extraction, sorgoleone manufactured in the cell could be spontaneously exported into organic droplets, without needing to invoke a transport protein, even if active droplet initiation cannot be ruled out (Fig. ). The droplets themselves would be carried through the soil, or potentially breakup when they hit a soil particle, and would diffuse in the local soil environment.