Cover Picture: Silica-Based Mesoporous Organic–Inorganic Hybrid Materials (Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 20/2006)

Perspectives on new opportunities for nano-enabled strategies for gene delivery to plants using nanoporous materials

Engineered nanocarriers have great potential to deliver different genetic cargos to plant cells and increase the efficiency of plant genetic engineering. Genetic engineering has improved the quality and quantity of crops by introducing desired DNA sequences into the plant genome. Traditional transformation strategies face constraints such as low transformation efficiency, damage to plant tissues, and genotype dependency. Smart nanovehicle-based delivery is a newly emerged method for direct DNA delivery to plant genomes. The basis of this new approach of plant genetic transformation, nanomaterial-mediated gene delivery, is the appropriate protection of transferred DNA from the nucleases present in the cell cytoplasm through the nanocarriers. The conjugation of desired nucleic acids with engineered nanocarriers can solve the problem of genetic manipulation in some valuable recalcitrant plant genotypes. Combining nano-enabled genetic transformation with the new and powerful technique of targeted genome editing, CRISPR (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats), can create new protocols for efficient improvement of desired plants. Silica-based nanoporous materials, especially mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNs), are currently regarded as exciting nanoscale platforms for genetic engineering as they possess several useful properties including ordered and porous structure, biocompatibility, biodegradability, and surface chemistry. These specific features have made MSNs promising candidates for the design of smart, controlled, and targeted delivery systems in agricultural sciences. In the present review, we discuss the usability, challenges, and opportunities for possible application of nano-enabled biomolecule transformation as part of innovative approaches for target delivery of genes of interest into plants.

Selective acid-functionalized mesoporous silica catalyst for conversion of glycerol to monoglycerides: state of the art and future prospects

The quest for efficient and selective catalysts for conversion of glycerol monoglyceride is critical for the development of reliable methods for its synthesis. Thus, various types of catalyst and methods of catalyst manufacturing for conversion of glycerol to monoglycerides have been investigated. Acid-functionalized mesoporous catalysts are emerging as highly efficient catalysts for conversion of glycerol into monoglyceride. The incorporation of acid components into different mesoporous silicas for this application is reviewed in this work. The superiority of mesostructure catalysts in comparison to microporous catalysts has been elucidated in terms of accessibility to active sites, pore diffusion, thermal stability of the catalyst and catalyst reusability. Recent direction of novel acid-functionalized mesoporous catalysts development for this application is also critically reviewed.