Nanodelivery of nucleic acids for plant genetic engineering

Abstract

Genetic engineering in plants serves as a crucial method for enhancing crop quality, yield, and climate resilience through the manipulation of genetic circuits. A novel genetic transformation approach utilizing nanocarriers as a sound plant genetic engineering technique enables the delivery of DNAs or RNAs into the plant cells. Significant advances have recently been made on the nanotechnology-based delivery of nucleic acids in plants. In this review, several nanoparticle-mediated DNA and RNA delivery systems are discussed respectively, involving latest progresses and drawbacks of these approaches used in plant genetic engineering. We also underscores the current challenges that must be addressed in the implementation of nanoparticles-based strategies for plant gene delivery. Furthermore and more importantly, plant-derived exosome-like nanoparticles that facilitate nucleic acids transfer between organisms was initially proposed as a novel and promising nanodelivery platform for the CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing toolkit in plants. We believe that this review will be beneficial for an effective exploration of nucleic acid nanodelivery to aid the plant genetic engineering in modern agriculture.