Pulse Brain · Growing Health Evidence Index
Tier 4 — Narrative / commentaryPeer-reviewed

Nanobiotechnology to advance stress resilience in plants: Current opportunities and challenges

Munazza Ijaz, Fahad Khan, Temoor Ahmed, Muhammad Noman, Faisal Zulfiqar, Muhammad Rizwan, Jianping Chen, Kadambot H. M. Siddique, Bin Li

Materials Today Bio · 2023

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Summary

This review examines nanobiotechnology as a sustainable approach to strengthen crop resilience in the context of climate variability and population pressures. The authors provide mechanistic insights into how engineered nanomaterials can enhance nutrient uptake, pest control efficacy, and genome editing whilst discussing current technology readiness levels and the regulatory and scaling barriers to implementation. The work positions nano-enabled agriculture as a potential contributor to global food security, though significant challenges remain in translating laboratory findings to field deployment.

UK applicability

The review's insights on nano-enabled nutrient delivery and climate-adaptive crop technologies are potentially relevant to UK arable and horticultural systems facing intensifying weather variability. However, adoption would require alignment with UK and EU regulatory frameworks for novel agricultural inputs, and further field validation under temperate conditions.

Key measures

Technology readiness level assessment; mechanisms of nanomaterial-mediated stress tolerance; efficacy in targeted nutrient delivery, pest management, and genome editing applications

Outcomes reported

The review synthesises mechanistic insights into engineered nanomaterials' potential to improve crop stress resilience and productivity through targeted nutrient delivery, pest management, genome editing, and smart sensors. It evaluates the technology readiness level of nano-based strategies and discusses regulatory requirements and scaling challenges for adoption in sustainable agriculture.

Theme
Climate & resilience
Subject
Climate & greenhouse gas mitigation
Study type
Narrative Review
Study design
Narrative review
Source type
Peer-reviewed study
Status
Published
Geography
Global
System type
Laboratory / in vitro
DOI
10.1016/j.mtbio.2023.100759
Catalogue ID
SNmok1wbx3-t8wjoh

Topic tags

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