纳米材料在农作物领域的应用及展望

近年来,纳米材料成为农业领域的一个研究热点,受到了国内外学者的广泛关注。纳米材料基于其尺寸小的特点,可以在穿透植物细胞壁后,通过内吞作用被细胞吸收,进而对植物生长产生影响。纳米材料被广泛应用于植物遗传转化、作物生长发育和植物健康等农作物领域,尤其在遗传转化领域,其可作为转化载体与基因编辑技术综合运用,对作物进行遗传改良。基于此,对纳米材料在植物体内的吸收、转运机制及其在农作物领域的应用进展进行了综述,重点探讨了纳米材料在植物遗传转化方面的研究进展,并对其在农作物领域亟待解决的问题和后续发展方向进行了展望,以期为拓宽纳米材料的应用领域提供参考。     

Not all GMOs are crop plants: non-plant GMO applications in agriculture

Since tools of modern biotechnology have become available, the most commonly applied and often discussed genetically modified organisms are genetically modified crop plants, although genetic engineering is also being used successfully in organisms other than plants, including bacteria, fungi, insects, and viruses. Many of these organisms, as with crop plants, are being engineered for applications in agriculture, to control plant insect pests or diseases. This paper reviews the genetically modified non-plant organisms that have been the subject of permit approvals for environmental release by the United States Department of Agriculture/Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service since the US began regulating genetically modified organisms. This is an indication of the breadth and progress of research in the area of non-plant genetically modified organisms. This review includes three examples of promising research on non-plant genetically modified organisms for application in agriculture: (1) insects for insect pest control using improved vector systems; (2) fungal pathogens of insects to control insect pests; and (3) virus for use as transient-expression vectors for disease control in plants.     

Nitric Oxide Signaling in Plant Responses to Abiotic Stresses

Nitric oxide (NO) plays important roles in diverse physiological processes In plants. NO can provoke both beneficial and harmful effects, which depend on the concentration and location of NO in plant cells. This review is focused on NO synthesis and the functions of NO in plant responses to abiotic environmental stresses. Abiotic stresses mostly induce NO production in plants. NO alleviates the harmfulness of reactive oxygen species, and reacts with other target molecules, and regulates the expression of stress responsive genes under various stress conditions.     

Nitric Oxide Signaling in Plant Responses to Abiotic Stresses

Nitric oxide (NO) plays important roles in diverse physiological processes In plants. NO can provoke both beneficial and harmful effects, which depend on the concentration and location of NO in plant cells. This review is focused on NO synthesis and the functions of NO in plant responses to abiotic environmental stresses. Abiotic stresses mostly induce NO production in plants. NO alleviates the harmfulness of reactive oxygen species, and reacts with other target molecules, and regulates the expression of stress responsive genes under various stress conditions.     

Vital roles of sustainable nano-fertilizers in improving plant quality and quantity-an updated review

Nanotechnology has received much attention because of its distinctive properties and many applications in various fields. Nanotechnology is a new approach to increase agricultural production with premium quality, environmental safety, biological support, and financial stability. Ecofriendly technology is becoming progressively important in modern agricultural applications as alternatives to traditional fertilizers and pesticides. Nanotechnology offers an alternative solution to overcome the disadvantages of conventional agriculture. Therefore, recent developments in using nanoparticles (NPs) in agriculture should be studied. This review presented a novel overview about the biosynthesis of NPs, using NPs as nano-fertilizers and nano-pesticides, the applications of NPs in agriculture, and their role in enhancing the function of biofactors. We also, show recent studies on NPs-plant interactions, the fate and safety of nanomaterials in plants, and NPs' function in alleviating the adverse effects of abiotic stress and heavy metal toxicity. Nano-fertilizers are essential to reduce the use of inorganic fertilizers and reduce their antagonistic effects on the environment. Nano-fertilizers are more reactive, can penetrate the epidermis allowing for gradual release, and targeted distribution, and thus reducing nutrients surplus, enhancing nutrient use efficiency. We also, concluded that NPs are crucial in alleviating abiotic stress and heavy metal toxicity. However, some studies reported the toxic effects of NPs on higher plants by induction of oxidative stress signals via depositing NPs on the cell surface and in organelles. The knowledge in our review article is critical in defining limitations and future perspectives of using nano-fertilizers as an alternative to conventional fertilizers.     

Effects of actinobacteria on plant disease suppression and growth promotion

Biological control and plant growth promotion by plant beneficial microbes has been viewed as an alternative to the use of chemical pesticides and fertilizers. Bacteria and fungi that are naturally associated with plants and have a beneficial effect on plant growth by the alleviation of biotic and abiotic stresses were isolated and developed into biocontrol (BCA) and plant growth-promoting agents (PGPA). Actinobacteria are a group of important plant-associated spore-forming bacteria, which have been studied for their biocontrol, plant growth promotion, and interaction with plants. This review summarizes the effects of actinobacteria as BCA, PGPA, and its beneficial associations with plants.     

Role of Triacontanol in Counteracting the Ill Effects of Salinity in Plants: A Review

Soil salinity is one among the common environmental threats to agriculture. It adversely affects the physio-biochemical processes of plants that eventually lead to the reduction in growth, development and crop productivity. To cope with such adverse conditions, plants develop certain internal mechanisms, but under severe conditions these mechanisms fail to tolerate the salt stress. To overcome this problem, various strategies have been employed that help plants to mitigate salinity effects. Among the various strategies, the application of plant growth regulators (PGRs) has gained significant attention to induce salt tolerance in plants. A number of PGRs have been used so far. Among these, triacontanol (TRIA), a new PGR is gaining a lot of importance to enhance the plant growth, productivity and salinity tolerance in different crops. The utility of TRIA is dependent on its applied concentration. Its lower concentrations generally alleviate the salinity effects. However, the knowledge of its biosynthesis, signalling and its role particularly to mitigate salinity effect remains scanty. In the present article, the focus has been given on the role of exogenous applications of TRIA in the regulation of physio-biochemical characteristics especially plant growth, photosynthesis, nutrient acquisition, oxidative stress, antioxidant systems, compatible solutes, yield attributes and its mode of action in plants under salinity conditions. The salient features of the review may provide new insights on the role of TRIA in countering the ill effect of salinity in different crop plants.

     

Effects of nitric oxide on sunflower seedlings: A balance between defense and development

Nitric oxide (NO) is a major plant signaling molecule that plays key roles during plant-pathogen interactions and plant development. Previous work showed the participation of NO in the development and lignin composition of sunflower roots. Thereby, we have hypothesized that NO applications could control the attack of the fungal pathogen Verticillium dahliae in sunflowers. Seedlings growing hydroponically were pretreated with NO donors and further inoculated with the fungus. Evaluation of disease symptoms showed that NO pretreatments could not reduce Verticillium wilt. Strikingly, NO donors appear to promote the fungal infection. These results indicate that NO applications were unable to protect sunflowers from Verticillium attack and highlight the role played by the fine tuning regulation of NO levels required to balance plant responses between development and defense.     

Transgene-induced pleiotropic effects in transplastomic plants

Since the first demonstration of stable transgene integration in the plastid genome (plastome) of higher plants, plastid transformation has been used for a wide range of purposes, including basic studies as well as biotechnological applications, showing that transplastomic plants are an effective system to produce recombinant proteins. Compared to nuclear transformation, the main advantages of this technology are the high and stable production level of proteins as well as the natural containment of transgenes. To date, more than 100 transgenes have been successfully expressed in plant chloroplasts. In some cases, however, unintended pleiotropic effects on plant growth and physiology were shown in transplastomic plants. In this paper, we review such effects and discuss some of the technologies developed to overcome them.     

拟南芥乙烯信号传递途径

植物激素乙烯早在一百多年前就已经被确认,相关的研究使得乙烯广泛地被应用于农业上.一直到十年前第一个植物激素乙烯受体拟南芥ETR1基因被发现之后,人们对于乙烯信号传递的研究并才真正开始有所突破.以遗传学为基础对乙烯反应突变体所做的分析,使得乙烯信号传递已经成为目前植物信号传递领域中被研究得最清楚的信号传递途径之一.该文着重于回顾乙烯信号传递途径上各个元件的发现和确认,以及如何利用遗传学的方法将现有的突变体相关基因构建出目前广为接受的信号传递的遗传模式.最后,该文就目前所知的乙烯信号传递理论及相关研究,做了总结和深入的讨论.     

Nitric oxide regulation of leaf phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase-kinase activity: implication in sorghum responses to salinity

Nitric oxide (NO) is a signaling molecule that mediates many plant responses to biotic and abiotic stresses, including salt stress. Interestingly, salinity increases NO production selectively in mesophyll cells of sorghum leaves, where photosynthetic C₄ phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase (C₄ PEPCase) is located. PEPCase is regulated by a phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase-kinase (PEPCase-k), which levels are greatly enhanced by salinity in sorghum. This work investigated whether NO is involved in this effect. NO donors (SNP, SNAP), the inhibitor of NO synthesis NNA, and the NO scavenger cPTIO were used for long- and short-term treatments. Long-term treatments had multifaceted consequences on both PPCK gene expression and PEPCase-k activity, and they also decreased photosynthetic gas-exchange parameters and plant growth. Nonetheless, it could be observed that SNP increased PEPCase-k activity, resembling salinity effect. Short-term treatments with NO donors, which did not change photosynthetic gas-exchange parameters and PPCK gene expression, increased PEPCase-k activity both in illuminated leaves and in leaves kept at dark. At least in part, these effects were independent on protein synthesis. PEPCase-k activity was not decreased by short-term treatment with cycloheximide in NaCl-treated plants; on the contrary, it was decreased by cPTIO. In summary, NO donors mimicked salt effect on PEPCase-k activity, and scavenging of NO abolished it. Collectively, these results indicate that NO is involved in the complex control of PEPCase-k activity, and it may mediate some of the plant responses to salinity.     

Exploring the potentialities of beneficial endophytes for improved plant growth

Pathogen affects plant growth, host health and productivity. Endophytes, presumed to live inside the plant tissues, might be helpful in sustaining the future of agriculture. Although recent studies have proven that endophytes can be pathogenic, commensal, non-pathogenic, and/or beneficial, this review will focus on the beneficial category only. Beneficial endophytes produce a number of compounds which are useful for protecting plants from environmental conditions, enhancing plant growth and sustainability, while living conveniently inside the hosts. The population of endophytes is majorly controlled by location, and climatic conditions where the host plant grows. Often the most frequently isolated endophytes from the tissues of the plant are fungi, but sometimes greater numbers of bacteria are isolated. Beneficial endophytes stand a chance to replace the synthetic chemicals currently being used for plant growth promotion if carefully explored by researchers and embraced by policymakers. However, the roles of endophytes in plant growth improvement and their behavior in the host plant have not been fully understood. This review presents the current development of research into beneficial endophytes and their effect in improving plant growth.     

Tungstate: is it really a specific nitrate reductase inhibitor in plant nitric oxide research?

Nitrate reductase (NR) is an enzymatic source of nitric oxide (NO) in plants, and it needs Mo for the Mo-cofactor to be activated. Because NR-deficient mutants are not always available in some species, a cheap and simple pharmacological application of tungstate, which substitutes for Mo in the Mo-cofactor as a competitive antagonist, is widely used as a NR inhibitor in plant NO research. However, evidence indicates that tungstate not only inactivates NR but also inhibits other molybdate-dependent enzymes in plants. In addition, a number of investigations have shown that tungstate also inhibits root growth, affects cortical microtubule formation, and induces programmed cell death (PCD) in plants, just like other heavy metals do. Therefore, tungstate has been shown to exert many other effects that are not connected with the inhibition of NR activity. The origin and mechanism of using tungstate as a NR inhibitor in plants is reviewed here and the progress regarding tungstate toxicity to plants and the possible problems involved in using tungstate as a NR inhibitor in plant NO research are analysed. In summary, the use of tungstate as a NR inhibitor in plant NO research must be treated with caution, keeping in mind that it is not completely specific. It is necessary to search for more NR-deficient mutants and new, specific NR inhibitors. A combination of pharmacological and biochemical analysis with a genetic approach will be necessary in order to investigate the roles of NO in plants.     

Genetic engineering of crops as potential source of genetic hazard in the human diet.

The benefits of genetic engineering of crop plants to improve the reliability and quality of the world food supply have been contrasted with public concerns raised about the food safety of the resulting products. Debates have concentrated on the possible unforeseen risks associated with the accumulation of new metabolites in crop plants that may contribute to toxins, allergens and genetic hazards in the human diet. This review examines the various molecular and biochemical mechanisms by which new hazards may appear in foods as a direct consequence of genetic engineering in crop plants. Such hazards may arise from the expression products of the inserted genes, secondary or pleiotropic effects of transgene expression, and random insertional mutagenic effects resulting from transgene integration into plant genomes. However, when traditional plant breeding is evaluated in the same context, these mechanisms are no different from those that have been widely accepted from the past use of new cultivars in agriculture. The risks associated with the introduction of new genes via genetic engineering must be considered alongside the common breeding practice of introgressing large fragments of chromatin from related wild species into crop cultivars. The large proportion of such introgressed DNA involves genes of unknown function linked to the trait of interest such as pest or disease resistance. In this context, the potential risks of introducing new food hazards from the applications of genetic engineering are no different from the risks that might be anticipated from genetic manipulation of crops via traditional breeding. In many respects, the precise manner in which genetic engineering can control the nature and expression of the transferred DNA offers greater confidence for producing the desired outcome compared with traditional breeding.     

Plant protein-based hydrophobic fine and ultrafine carrier particles in drug delivery systems

For thousands of years, plants and their products have been used as the mainstay of medicinal therapy. In recent years, besides attempts to isolate the active ingredients of medicinal plants, other new applications of plant products, such as their use to prepare drug delivery vehicles, have been discovered. Nanobiotechnology is a branch of pharmacology that can provide new approaches for drug delivery by the preparation of biocompatible carrier nanoparticles (NPs). In this article, we review recent studies with four important plant proteins that have been used as carriers for targeted delivery of drugs and genes. Zein is a water-insoluble protein from maize; Gliadin is a 70% alcohol-soluble protein from wheat and corn; legumin is a casein-like protein from leguminous seeds such as peas; lectins are glycoproteins naturally occurring in many plants that recognize specific carbohydrate residues. NPs formed from these proteins show good biocompatibility, possess the ability to enhance solubility, and provide sustained release of drugs and reduce their toxicity and side effects. The effects of preparation methods on the size and loading capacity of these NPs are also described in this review.     

The role of nitric oxide and hemoglobin in plant development and morphogenesis

Plant morphogenesis is regulated endogenously through phytohormones and other chemical signals, which may act either locally or distant from their place of synthesis. Nitric oxide (NO) is formed by a number of controlled processes in plant cells. It is a central signaling molecule with several effects on control of plant growth and development, such as shoot and root architecture. All plants are able to express non‐symbiotic hemoglobins at low concentration. Their function is generally not related to oxygen transport or storage; instead they effectively oxidize NO to NO₃^? and thereby control the local cellular NO concentration. In this review, we analyze available data on the role of NO and plant hemoglobins in morphogenetic processes in plants. The comparison of the data suggests that hemoglobin gene expression in plants modulates development and morphogenesis of organs, such as roots and shoots, through the localized control of NO, and that hemoglobin gene expression should always be considered a modulating factor in processes controlled directly or indirectly by NO in plants.     

The NO world for plants: achieving balance in an open system

Nitric oxide (NO) is a free radical that had been known for many years simply as a toxic air pollutant. The discovery of enzymatic NO production in many living organisms has established a new paradigm: NO being an essential molecule endogenously produced in the cells. In plant science it has been suggested that NO acts as a plant hormone equivalent to ethylene; that is, as a gaseous signal transmitter. Even after experiencing such a scientific breakthrough, however, researchers may still feel difficulty in exploring plant NO signalling systems with conventional approaches. A major difference between plants and animals is that the growth and development of plants is closely linked to the surrounding environment where NO levels vary according to biotic and abiotic activities. This fundamental difference may make the NO-signalling network system of plants larger and more complicated than that of vertebrates. This review intends to show prospects for the future of NO signalling research in plants by introducing a holistic concept to aid in the exploration of complicated systems such as the plant-environment system. Furthermore, the novel ONS hypothesis is proposed to encompass the complexity and simplicity of NO in chemistry, biochemistry and physiology.     

Role of nitric oxide in tolerance of plants to abiotic stress

Nitric oxide (NO) has now gained significant place in plant science, mainly due to its properties (free radical, small size, no charge, short-lived, and highly diffusible across biological membranes) and multifunctional roles in plant growth, development, and regulation of remarkable spectrum of plant cellular mechanisms. In the last few years, the role of NO in tolerance of plants to abiotic stress has established much consideration. As it is evident from the present review, recent progress on NO potentiality in tolerance of plants to environmental stresses has been impressive. These investigations suggest that NO, itself, possesses antioxidant properties and might act as a signal in activating ROS-scavenging enzyme activities under abiotic stress. NO plays an important role in resistance to salt, drought, temperature (high and low), UV-B, and heavy metal stress. Rapidly increasing evidences indicate that NO is essentially involve in several physiological processes; however, there has been much disagreement regarding the mechanism(s) by which NO reduces abiotic stress.