DNA delivery into plant tissues using carbon dots made from citric acid and β-alanine.

IF 3.8 3区化学 Q2 CHEMISTRY, MULTIDISCIPLINARY

Frontiers in Chemistry Pub Date : 2025-03-19 eCollection Date: 2025-01-01 DOI:10.3389/fchem.2025.1542504

Kuber Shivashakarappa, Sureshbabu Marriboina, Zeinab Yadegari, Vikas Reddy Paduri, Ritesh Sachan, Korsi Dumenyo, Ali Taheri

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Agriculture and food security face significant challenges due to population growth, climate change, and biotic and abiotic stresses. Enhancing crop productivity and quality through biotechnology is crucial in addressing these challenges. Genome engineering techniques, including gene cassette delivery into plant cells, aim to meet these demands. However, conventional biomolecule delivery methods have limitations such as poor efficacy, low regeneration capability, and potential cell damage. Nanoparticles, known for their success in drug delivery in animals, hold promise as DNA nanocarriers in plant sciences. This study explores the efficacy of carbon dots (CDs), synthesized rapidly and cost-effectively from citric acid monohydrate and β-alanine using a microwave-assisted method, as carriers for plasmid DNA delivery into plant tissues. The detailed characterization of carbon dots, evaluation of their binding ability with plasmid DNA, and phytotoxicity assessments were systematically conducted. The delivery and expression of plasmid DNA were successfully demonstrated in canola leaves via needleless syringe infiltration and in soybean root cells and protoplasts through passive diffusion. Additionally, the particle bombardment method facilitated the efficient delivery of plasmid DNA of varying sizes (4 kb, 11 kb, and 17 kb) into onion epidermal cells, as well as the successful delivery of plasmid DNA containing the GUS reporter gene into soybean embryos, using carbon dots as a binding agent between plasmid DNA and tungsten microcarrier. To our knowledge, this is the first study to report the use of carbon dots as a substitute for spermidine in such applications. Overall, our research presents a rapidly synthesized, cost-effective platform for efficient plasmid DNA delivery, establishing a foundation for using carbon dots as carriers for CRISPR and RNAi constructs in gene knockout and knockdown applications in plant tissues, with a comparison of their transformation efficiency against traditional delivery techniques.

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来源期刊

Frontiers in Chemistry Chemistry-General Chemistry

CiteScore

8.50

自引率

3.60%

发文量

1540

审稿时长

12 weeks

期刊介绍： Frontiers in Chemistry is a high visiblity and quality journal, publishing rigorously peer-reviewed research across the chemical sciences. Field Chief Editor Steve Suib at the University of Connecticut is supported by an outstanding Editorial Board of international researchers. This multidisciplinary open-access journal is at the forefront of disseminating and communicating scientific knowledge and impactful discoveries to academics, industry leaders and the public worldwide. Chemistry is a branch of science that is linked to all other main fields of research. The omnipresence of Chemistry is apparent in our everyday lives from the electronic devices that we all use to communicate, to foods we eat, to our health and well-being, to the different forms of energy that we use. While there are many subtopics and specialties of Chemistry, the fundamental link in all these areas is how atoms, ions, and molecules come together and come apart in what some have come to call the “dance of life”. All specialty sections of Frontiers in Chemistry are open-access with the goal of publishing outstanding research publications, review articles, commentaries, and ideas about various aspects of Chemistry. The past forms of publication often have specific subdisciplines, most commonly of analytical, inorganic, organic and physical chemistries, but these days those lines and boxes are quite blurry and the silos of those disciplines appear to be eroding. Chemistry is important to both fundamental and applied areas of research and manufacturing, and indeed the outlines of academic versus industrial research are also often artificial. Collaborative research across all specialty areas of Chemistry is highly encouraged and supported as we move forward. These are exciting times and the field of Chemistry is an important and significant contributor to our collective knowledge.