Thermo-Responsive Quaternary Ammonium Chitosan Nanocapsules with On-Demand Controlled Pesticide Release and Maximally Synergistic Biological Activity

Can nanotechnology and genomics innovations trigger agricultural revolution and sustainable development?

At the dawn of new millennium, policy makers and researchers focused on sustainable agricultural growth, aiming for food security and enhanced food quality. Several emerging scientific innovations hold the promise to meet the future challenges. Nanotechnology presents a promising avenue to tackle the diverse challenges in agriculture. By leveraging nanomaterials, including nano fertilizers, pesticides, and sensors, it provides targeted delivery methods, enhancing efficacy in both crop production and protection. This integration of nanotechnology with agriculture introduces innovations like disease diagnostics, improved nutrient uptake in plants, and advanced delivery systems for agrochemicals. These precision-based approaches not only optimize resource utilization but also reduce environmental impact, aligning well with sustainability objectives. Concurrently, genetic innovations, including genome editing and advanced breeding techniques, enable the development of crops with improved yield, resilience, and nutritional content. The emergence of precision gene-editing technologies, exemplified by CRISPR/Cas9, can transform the realm of genetic modification and enabled precise manipulation of plant genomes while avoiding the incorporation of external DNAs. Integration of nanotechnology and genetic innovations in agriculture presents a transformative approach. Leveraging nanoparticles for targeted genetic modifications, nanosensors for early plant health monitoring, and precision nanomaterials for controlled delivery of inputs offers a sustainable pathway towards enhanced crop productivity, resource efficiency, and food safety throughout the agricultural lifecycle. This comprehensive review outlines the pivotal role of nanotechnology in precision agriculture, emphasizing soil health improvement, stress resilience against biotic and abiotic factors, environmental sustainability, and genetic engineering.

Adduct of Pesticide and Lignocellulosic Waste via Cleavable Silaketal Linkages for Agricultural Double Reduction

The abuse of hazardous agrochemicals leads to excessive toxic agricultural emissions, posing a tremendous threat to the natural surroundings and human well-being. In practice, the amount of pesticides in protecting crops is often far less than that lost into the environment through evaporation and leaching. Minimizing the use of pesticides as well as improving their use efficiency has been included in the policy of "agricultural double reduction," besides replacing the chemical fertilizer with straw returning. Here, we establish a strategy for controlling pesticide release from the lignocellulosic waste based on the stimulus-responsive cleavage of silaketal linkages. Noting that the cleavage of the silaketal linkages relies heavily on the substituent groups on silicon atoms, this pesticide-releasing system has the advantages of predictable service life and less environmental pollution in a desired time window. Instead of lengthy laboratory synthesis, outdoor instant synthesis can be conveniently realized with the help of a photothermal heating apparatus. After utilization, both silaketal linkages and lignocellulosic residuals are eco-friendly and can be a source of nutrients for soil. Referring to agricultural double reduction, this type of pesticide formulation is coined as a competitive approach to minimize pesticide pollution along with straw returning.

Nanomaterials and Nanotechnology in Agricultural Pesticide Delivery: A Review

Pesticides play a crucial role in ensuring food production and food security. Conventional pesticide formulations can not meet the current needs of social and economic development, and they also can not meet the requirements of green agriculture. Therefore, there is an urgent need to develop efficient, stable, safe, and environmentally friendly pesticide formulations to gradually replace old formulations which have high pollution and low efficacy. The rise of nanotechnology provides new possibilities for innovation in pesticide formulations. Through reasonable design and construction of an environmentally friendly pesticide delivery system (PDS) based on multifunctional nanocarriers, the drawbacks of conventional pesticides can be effectively solved, realizing a water-based, nanosized, targeted, efficient, and safe pesticide system. In the past five years, researchers in chemistry, materials science, botany, entomology, plant protection, and other fields are paying close attention to the research of nanomaterials based PDSs and nanopesticide formulations and have made certain research achievements. These explorations provide useful references for promoting the innovation of nanopesticides and developing a new generation of green and environmentally friendly pesticide formulations. This Perspective summarizes the recent advances of nanomaterials in PDSs and nanopesticide innovation, aiming to provide useful guidance for carrier selection, surface engineering, controlled release conditions, and application in agriculture.

The update and transport of aluminum nanoparticles in plants and their biochemical and molecular phototoxicity on plant growth and development: A systematic review

As aluminum nanoparticles (Al-NPs) are widely used in our daily life and various industries, Al-NPs has been becoming an emerging pollution in the environment. The impact of this NP has been attracting more and more attention from the scientific communities. In this review, we systematically summarized the interactions, uptake, and transport of Al-NPs in the plant system. Al-NPs can enter plants through different pathways and accumulate in various tissues, leading to alter plant growth and development. Al-NPs also affected root, shoot, and leaf characteristics as well as changing nutrient uptake and distribution and inducing oxidative stress via excess reactive radical generation, thereby impairing plant defense systems. Additionally, Al-NPs altered gene expression, which involved in various signaling pathways and metabolic processes in plants, that further altered plants susceptible or tolerant to stressors. The review also emphasized the effects of Al-NP size, surface charge, concentration, and exposure duration on plant growth and development. In the future, more research should be focused on mechanisms underlying Al-NPs phytotoxicity and potential risk to humans and off-target species.

A multidimensional optimization strategy of pyraclostrobin-loaded microcapsules to improve the selectivity between toxicological risk in zebrafish and efficacy in controlling rice blast

Developing microcapsules (MCs) delivery systems can effectively mitigate toxicological risk of highly active/toxic pesticides; whereas the controlled release functions also limiting their practical effectiveness. Therefore, designing a precise regulating strategy to balance the toxicity and bioactivity of MCs is urgently needed. Here, we prepared a series of pyraclostrobin-loaded MCs with different wall materials, particle sizes, core density and shell compactness using interfacial polymerization. The results showed that the MCs released more slowly in water with increasing particle sizes and capsule compactness, and they sunk more quickly with the increasing particle sizes and core density. Additionally, MCs with slower release speed was always accompanied with lower acute toxicity levels to zebrafish. When the release dynamics slowed down to the threshold dose on demand for disease control, facilitating settlement of MCs can further reduce toxicity within spatial and temporal dimensions. The poor accumulation of MCs with larger particle sizes or dense shell in gills was closely related to their efficient detoxification. Importantly, seven of the MCs samples possessed superior selectivity between bio-performance in controlling rice blast and toxicological hazard to fish compared to commercial formulations. The results provide a comprehensive guidance for developing an efficient and safe pesticide delivery system.

Smart Protein-Based Fluorescent Nanoparticles Prepared by a Continuous Nanoprecipitation Method for Pesticides' Precise Delivery and Tracing

It is highly desirable to develop smart and green pesticide nanoformulations for improving pesticide targeting and reducing their inherent toxicity. Herein, we demonstrate a continuous nanoprecipitation method to construct a novel type of enzyme-responsive fluorescent nanopesticides (denoted as ABM@BSA-FITC/GA NPs) based on abamectin, fluorescein isothiocyanate isomer (FITC)-modified protein, and food-grade gum arabic. The as-prepared ABM@BSA-FITC/GA NPs exhibit good water dispersibility, excellent storage stability, and enhanced wettability compared to commercial formulations. The controlled release of pesticides can be achieved through protein degradation caused by trypsin. Most importantly, the deposition, distribution, and transport of the ABM@BSA-FITC/GA NPs are precisely tracked on target plants (cabbage and cucumber) by fluorescence. Furthermore, the ABM@BSA-FITC/GA NPs show the high control efficacy against Plutella xylostella L., which is comparable with commercial emulsifiable concentrate formulation. In consideration of its eco-friendly composition and absence of organic solvent, this pesticide nanoformulation has promising potential in sustainable plant protection.

Activity of chitin/chitosan/chitosan oligosaccharide against plant pathogenic nematodes and potential modes of application in agriculture: A review

Chemical nematicide is the most common method of controlling plant-parasitic nematodes (PPN). Given the negative impact of chemical nematicides on the environment and ecosystem, it is necessary to seek their alternatives and novel modes of application. Chitin oligo/polysaccharide (COPS), including chitosan and chitosan oligosaccharide, has unique biological properties. By producing ammonia, encouraging the growth of antagonistic bacteria, and enhancing crop tolerance, COPSs help suppress PPN growth during soil remediation. COPS is also an effective sustained-release carrier that can be used to overcome the shortcomings of nematicidal substances. This review summarizes the advancements of COPS research in nematode control from three perspectives of action mechanism as well as in slow-release carrier-loaded nematicides. Further, it discusses potential agricultural applications for nematode disease management.

Bionanotechnology in Agriculture: A One Health Approach

Healthy eating habits are one of the requirements for the health of society. In particular, in natura foods are increasingly encouraged, since they have a high concentration of nutrients. However, these foods are often grown in the presence of agrochemicals, such as fertilizers and pesticides. To increase crop productivity and achieve high vigor standards in less time, farmers make excessive use of agrochemicals that generate various economic, environmental, and clinical problems. In this way, bionanotechnology appears as an ally in developing technologies to improve planting conditions, ranging from the health of farmers and consumers to the production of new foods and functional foods. All these improvements are based on the better use of land use in synergy with the lowest generation of environmental impacts and the health of living beings, with a view to the study and production of technologies that take into account the concept of One Health in its processes and products. In this review article, we will address how caring for agriculture can directly influence the quality of the most desired foods in contemporary society, and how new alternatives based on nanotechnology can point to efficient and safe solutions for living beings on our planet.

Self-Assembled Sphere Covalent Organic Framework with Enhanced Herbicidal Activity by Loading Cyhalofop-butyl

Nanopesticides are considered to be a novel and efficient kind of tool for controlling pests in modern agriculture. Covalent organic frameworks (COFs), with high surface areas, ordered structures, and rich functional groups for loading pesticides, are a class of promising carrier materials that can be used to develop efficient nanopesticide delivery systems. However, until now, only a strong ionic interaction between the pesticide and COF can be utilized to achieve the combination between the pesticide and COF. On the basis of this method, charged pesticide molecules are the only choice for COF-based nanopesticides, which limits the exploitation. The way to load the uncharged pesticide molecules into COF still needs to be explored. Herein, in this research, we provided a commonly mild and high-efficacy strategy for loading an uncharged pesticide molecule into COF. The herbicide cyhalofop-butyl (CB), as a neutral model pesticide molecule, was loaded into the sphere COF (SCOF, a model COF synthesized at room temperature) without any ionic interaction via the host-guest strategy. The loading capacity of CB into SCOF (CB@SCOF) was determined at 57% (w/w). Smaller CB@SCOF particles (150-200 nm) can efficiently enter the weed leaves and stems, enhancing the accumulation of the effective concentration in weeds, thus increasing herbicidal activity, in comparison to CB emulsifiable (EC, micrometer scale). Furthermore, CB@SCOF had a solubilization effect for CB in water and can improve the photostability of CB. Thus, the CB-loaded COF nanosphere showed excellent herbicidal activities against the target weeds Echinochloa crus-galli and Leptochloa chinensis compared to commercial CB EC. In conclusion, this study also provides a mild and high-efficacy pesticide loading strategy for COFs. The constructed efficient delivery system and pesticide formulation containing herbicidal COF nanospheres exhibit great potential applications for controlling weeds in sustainable agriculture.

Organosilica-based deformable nanopesticides with enhanced insecticidal activity prepared by flash nanoprecipitation

A flash nanoprecipitation technique was developed for the construction of a novel type of deformable hollow organosilica nanoparticle for pesticide delivery.

Novel Approaches for Sustainable Horticultural Crop Production: Advances and Prospects

Reduction of plant growth, yield and quality due to diverse environmental constrains along with climate change significantly limit the sustainable production of horticultural crops. In this review, we highlight the prospective impacts that are positive challenges for the application of beneficial microbial endophytes, nanomaterials (NMs), exogenous phytohormones strigolactones (SLs) and new breeding techniques (CRISPR), as well as controlled environment horticulture (CEH) using artificial light in sustainable production of horticultural crops. The benefits of such applications are often evaluated by measuring their impact on the metabolic, morphological and biochemical parameters of a variety of cultures, which typically results in higher yields with efficient use of resources when applied in greenhouse or field conditions. Endophytic microbes that promote plant growth play a key role in the adapting of plants to habitat, thereby improving their yield and prolonging their protection from biotic and abiotic stresses. Focusing on quality control, we considered the effects of the applications of microbial endophytes, a novel class of phytohormones SLs, as well as NMs and CEH using artificial light on horticultural commodities. In addition, the genomic editing of plants using CRISPR, including its role in modulating gene expression/transcription factors in improving crop production and tolerance, was also reviewed.