Go green to protect plants: repurposing the antimicrobial activity of biosynthesized silver nanoparticles to combat phytopathogens

Paul, A and Roychoudhury, A (2021) Go green to protect plants: repurposing the antimicrobial activity of biosynthesized silver nanoparticles to combat phytopathogens. In: Nanotechnology for Environmental Engineering, 6 (1).

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Abstract

Plants are incessantly challenged by bacterial, fungal and viral pathogens, and together with climate change, the global food security is severely threatened. Nanotechnology provides promising alternatives to conventional approaches (pesticides and antibiotics) for plant disease management, due to their unique physiochemical properties, including small size (1�100 nm), large active surface area, solubility and prolonged residual activity. Previously, antimicrobial properties of silver (Ag) have been repurposed in physiochemically synthesized nanoparticles (AgNPs) to kill plant pathogens. In the last decade, to bypass using such ecologically damaging synthesis techniques, several environment friendly synthesis processes, of which intracellular or extracellular synthesis of AgNPs by microorganisms like bacteria, fungi, algae and plant extracts, have gained attention. �Green� synthesis of AgNPs in plant and microbial nanobiofactories is rapid, eco-friendly and readily scalable and determined by multiple synthesis parameters. Biosynthesized AgNPs proved to be substantially effective against bacterial, fungal and viral phytopathovars, both in vitro and in greenhouse experiments, and were evaluated as competent agrichemical substitutes for bactericides, fungicides and nematicides. Mechanistic insights into the tripartite interaction between plant, pathogen and nanoparticles confirm the ability of AgNPs, 1) to damage membrane integrity and induce oxidative stress in phytopathogens and 2) to modulate transcription, protein expression and metabolic profile of host plant. The antimicrobial activity of biosynthesized AgNPs augmented with their potential to modify defence mechanisms of host plants, can be exploited for developing nanobioweapons that will be integral to disease management strategies, thereby assisting global food security. © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG part of Springer Nature.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Publication:	Nanotechnology for Environmental Engineering
Publisher:	Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH
Additional Information:	The copyright of this article belongs to Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH
Keywords:	Bacteria; Climate change; Food supply; Nanoparticles; Pathogens; Plant extracts; Silver nanoparticles; Transcription, Anti-microbial activity; Anti-microbial properties; Conventional approach; Disease management strategies; Environment friendly; Greenhouse experiments; Physio-chemical properties; Plant disease managements, Synthesis (chemical), Bacteria (microorganisms)
Department/Centre:	Division of Biological Sciences > Molecular Biophysics Unit
Date Deposited:	12 Mar 2021 16:06
Last Modified:	12 Mar 2021 16:06
URI:	http://eprints.iisc.ac.in/id/eprint/68176

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