Relaxation of the Plant Cell Wall Barrier via Zwitterionic Liquid Pretreatment for Micelle‐Complex‐Mediated DNA Delivery to Specific Plant Organelles

Abstract

Targeted delivery of genes to specific plant organelles is a key challenge for fundamental plant science, plant bioengineering, and agronomic applications. Nanoscale carriers have attracted interest as a promising tool for organelletargeted DNA delivery in plants. However, nanocarrier-mediated DNA delivery in plants is severely hampered by the barrier of the plant cell wall, resulting in insufficient delivery efficiency. Herein, we propose a unique strategy that synergistically combines a cell wall-loosening zwitterionic liquid (ZIL) with a peptide-displaying micelle complex for organelle-specific DNA delivery in plants. We demonstrated that ZIL pretreatment can enhance cell wall permeability without cytotoxicity, allowing micelle complexes to translocate across the cell wall and carry DNA cargo into specific plant organelles, such as nuclei and chloroplasts, with significantly augmented efficiency. Our work offers a novel concept to overcome the plant cell wall barrier for nanocarrier-mediated cargo delivery to specific organelles in living plants.

Translocation and transformation of engineered nanomaterials in plant cells and their effect on metabolism

“…Future research should consider the following points: (1) NMs may be modified to undergo surface modifications that alter the charge on their surface, facilitating the passage through organelle membranes; (2) Targeted transport of nanocarriers in plants is an interesting hypothesis (Miyamoto et al, 2022), which may provide good ideas for future targeted application of nanopesticides; (3) More studies need to examine the pathway and the amount of NPs entering the plant.…”