Climate change, increasing populations, competing demands on land for production of biofuels, and declining soil quality are challenging global food security. Finding sustainable solutions requires bold new approaches and integration of knowledge from diverse fields, such as materials science and informatics. The convergence of precision agriculture, whereby farmers respond in real-time to changes in crop growth, with nanotechnology and artificial intelligence offers exciting opportunities for sustainable food production. Coupling existing models for nutrient cycling and crop productivity with nanoinformatics approaches to optimize targeting, uptake, delivery nutrient capture and long term impacts on soil microbial communities will allow design of nanoscale agrochemcials that combine optimal safety and functionality profiles. bacterial community structure after just 90 days of exposure to a realistic concentration of NPs (1 mg kg −1 dry soil) 10 , while studies with Ag NMs, which are well-known for their antimicrobial activity have shown that the extent of impact on soil community composition over 90 days are affected by exposure time and physicochemical composition of soil as well as the type and coating of the NMs 11 . Thus, an important caveat at the outset of this review is that NMs represent a very broad spectrum of chemistries, compositions and physicochemical properties, which are dynamic and evolving as the NMs interact with their surroundings, and as such generalisations regarding their applications in agriculture are difficult, and predictions of long-term effects are challenging currently.However, as noted in the aforementioned reviews 3, 4, 5 , the development of nanotechnology for agricultural applications is still at an early stage and is moving forward quite slowly. Significant differences may exist between nanotechnology-based pesticides and conventional pesticides, including altered bioavailability, sensitivity, dosimetry, and pharmacokinetics 12, 13 . Challenges and barriers include limited understanding of plant-NMs interactions, limited methods for efficient delivery of NMs to plants and soil, risks of potentially hazardous effects of NMs to human health from accumulation of NMs and active ingredient residues in edible portions of plants 4 , and to long term soil quality and soil health from accumulation of NMs and their degradation products in soil and resultant potential alterations in microbial biodiversity 14 . There is an urgent need to address these barriers and achieve a true win-win scenario, whereby improved agricultural production, reduced environmental pollution from agriculture and lower costs for farmers can be achieved synergistically. A one-health approach to nano-agriculture was proposed by Lombi et al., that requires interdisciplinarity and the bridging of human and environmental health research 15 . Computational approaches including artificial intelligence (A.I.) and machine learning (M.L.) modelling will undoubtedly play critical roles in the progess of nano-enabled agric...

Engineered nanomaterials (ENMs) have huge potential for improving use efficiency of agrochemicals, crop production, and soil health; however, the behavior and fate of ENMs and the potential for negative long‐term impacts to agroecosystems remain largely unknown. In particular, there is a lack of clear understanding of the transformation of ENMs in both soil and plant compartments. The transformation can be physical, chemical, and/or biological, and may occur in soil, at the plant interface, and/or inside the plant. Due to these highly dynamic processes, ENMs may acquire new properties distinct from their original profile; as such, the behavior, fate, and biological effects may also differ significantly. Several essential questions in terms of ENMs transformation are discussed, including the drivers and locations of ENM transformation in the soil–plant system and the effects of ENM transformation on analyte uptake, translocation, and toxicity. The main knowledge gaps in this area are highlighted and future research needs are outlined so as to ensure sustainable nanoenabled agricultural applications.

Actomyosin contractility is a highly regulated process that affects many fundamental biological processes in each and every cell in our body. In this Cell Science at a Glance article and the accompanying poster, we mined the literature and databases to map the contractome of non-muscle cells. Actomyosin contractility is involved in at least 49 distinct cellular functions that range from providing cell architecture to signal transduction and nuclear activity. Containing over 100 scaffolding and regulatory proteins, the contractome forms a highly complex network with more than 230 direct interactions between its components, 86 of them involving phosphorylation. Mapping these interactions, we identify the key regulatory pathways involved in the assembly of actomyosin structures and in activating myosin to produce contractile forces within non-muscle cells at the exact time and place necessary for cellular function.

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Significance This study analyzed the dynamic protein corona on the surface of nanoparticles as they traversed from blood to cell lysosomes and escaped from lysosomes to cytoplasm in the target cells. We found with proteomic analysis an abundance of chaperone and glycolysis coronal proteins (i.e., heat shock cognate protein 70, heat shock protein 90, and pyruvate kinase M2 [PKM2]) after escape of the nanoparticles from lysosomes to the cytosol. Alterations of the coronal proteins (e.g., PKM2 and chaperone binding) induced proteostasis collapse, which subsequently led to elevated chaperone-mediated autophagy (CMA) activity in cells. As PKM2 is a key molecule in cell metabolism, we also revealed that PKM2 depletion was causative to CMA-induced cell metabolism disruption from glycolysis to lipid metabolism.