Agriculture plays a fundamental role in ensuring global food security, yet plant diseases remain a significant threat to crop production. Traditional methods to manage plant diseases have been extensively used, but they face significant drawbacks, such as environmental pollution, health risks and pathogen resistance. Similarly, biopesticides are eco-friendly, but are limited by their specificity and stability issues. This has led to the exploration of novel biotechnological approaches, such as the development of synthetic proteins, which aim to mitigate these drawbacks by offering more targeted and sustainable solutions. Similarly, recent advances in genome editing techniques—such as meganucleases (MegNs), zinc finger nucleases (ZFNs), transcription activator-like effector nucleases (TALENs) and clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)—are precise approaches in disease management, but are limited by technical challenges and regulatory concerns. In this realm, nanotechnology has emerged as a promising frontier that offers novel solutions for plant disease management. This review examines the role of nanoparticles (NPs), including organic NPs, inorganic NPs, polymeric NPs and carbon NPs, in enhancing disease resistance and improving pesticide delivery, and gives an overview of the current state of nanotechnology in managing plant diseases, including its advantages, practical applications and obstacles that must be overcome to fully harness its potential. By understanding these aspects, we can better appreciate the transformative impact of nanotechnology on modern agriculture and can develop sustainable and effective strategies to mitigate plant diseases, ensuring enhanced agricultural productivity.

We developed alginate-based floating microbeads of clarithromycin with therapeutic oils for the possible eradication of Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infections by enhancing the residence time of the carrier at the site of infection. In pursuit of this endeavor, the alginate was blended with hydroxy propyl methyl cellulose (HPMC) as an interpenetrating polymer to develop beads by ionotropic gelation using calcium carbonate as a gas generating agent. The developed microbeads remained buoyant under gastric conditions for 24 h. These microbeads initially swelled and afterwards decreased in size, possibly due to the erosion of the polymer. Furthermore, swelling was also affected by the type of encapsulated oil, i.e., swelling decreased with increasing concentrations of eucalyptus oil and increased with increasing concentrations of oleic acid. Antibacterial assays of the formulations showed significant antibacterial activity against Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) and Escherichia coli (E. coli); these assays also showed synergistic activity between clarithromycin and therapeutic oils as evident from the higher zone of inhibition of the microbeads as compared to the pure drug and oils. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images revealed a smoother surface for oleic acid containing the formulation as compared to eucalyptus oil containing the formulation. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) revealed the development of a stable formulation, while Fourier transform infrared spectrophotometry (FTIR) studies did not reveal any interaction between the polymers and the active ingredients. Optimized formulations (CLM3 and CLM6) were designed to release the drug in a controlled manner in gastric media by Fickian diffusion. Conclusively, the developed microbeads are a promising carrier to overcome the narrow therapeutic index and low bioavailability of clarithromycin, while the presence of therapeutic oils will produce synergistic effects with the drug to eradicate infection effectively.

The detrimental effects of drought have adverse impacts on the crop yield as global climatic changes put unusual pressure on water resources. The challenge of attaining water security is key for the sustainable development of crops. Zinc (Zn²⁺) is an important nutrient that helps to alleviate drought stress by modulating the growth and yield of crops. Recently, zinc nanoparticles (ZnNPs) have been used as a novel strategy for the fertilization of crops. This study was specifically developed to observe the comparative effects of ZnNPs and conventional zinc sulfate (ZnSO₄) at diverse concentration levels (0.01%, 0.05%, and 0.1%) that could effectively decrease the injurious effect of drought stress on turnip plants. In experiments on the golden turnip variety, drought stress caused a significant reduction in all growth and biochemical attributes, and increased antioxidant enzymatic activity. In a comparison with the conventional fertilizer ZnSO₄, the foliar application of 0.1% ZnNPs significantly improved plant height, biomass, root/turnip length, turnip diameter, antioxidant defense system, secondary metabolites, and photosynthetic pigments in the leaves under drought stress. Based on the collected results, it is suggested that the foliar application of ZnNPs, instead of ZnSO_4, under drought stress is helpful in increasing the growth and yield of turnip plants.

The main cause of decline in banana production is fusarium wilt caused by the fungus Fusarium oxysporum f.sp.cubense (Foc). This disease is systemic, it is very dangerous because it can kill plants. Fusarium wilt disease ranks first in the list of diseases of bananas in Indonesia, fusarium wilt very difficult to control because it has not found a commercial banana cultivars resistant. Integrated Pest Management (Biological Control) using biological agents, one of which is the rhizosphere that has the ability to suppress the growth of Fusarium wilt (Fusarium oxysporumf.sp.cubense) in vitro. The purpose of this study was to determine the ability of an antagonist of the rhizosphere fungus to fungus fusarium. This research method is a rhizosphere fungal activity test against fusarium fungus. The results showed that 12 isolates the rhizosphere has the potential to inhibit the growth of fungi fusarium the percentage inhibition ie 82% of isolates A1, B2 D3 by 83% and 80%, A2 isolates the isolates that produce inhibition of the smallest amounting to 15%. Based on identification consists of rhizosphere fungi genus Trichoderma sp., Aspergillus sp., And Penicillium sp.

Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) is an essential bioenergy crop. Cellulosic and non-cellulosic polysaccharides, which can be transformed into biofuels, comprise most of its biomass. Many glycosyltransferases (GT) families, including GT43, are involved in the biosynthesis of xylan in plants’ primary and secondary cells. In this study, the GT43 gene family was identified, and its secondary structure and a three-dimensional (3D) model were constructed. Additionally, subcellular localization, detection of motifs, and analyses of its phylogenetic tree, physiochemical properties, protein–protein interaction network, gene structure, functional domain, gene duplication, Cis-acting elements, sequence logos, multiple sequence alignment, and gene expression profiles were performed based on RNA-sequence analyses. As a result, eleven members of the GT43 gene family were identified, and the phylogenetic tree of the GT43 gene family showed that all GT43 genes had evolutionary relationships with sorghum. Analyses of gene structure, motifs, sequence logos, and multiple sequence alignment showed that all members of the GT43 protein family were highly conserved. Subcellular localization showed all members of the GT43 protein family were localized in different compartments of sorghum. The secondary structure of the GT43 genes comprised different percentages of α-helices, random coils, β-turns, and extended strands. The tertiary structure model showed that all GT43 proteins had similar 3D structures. The results of the current study indicated that members of the GT43 gene family (Sobic.010G238800, Sobic.003G254700, and Sobic.001G409100) were highly expressed in internodes of the sorghum plant, based on RNA-Sequencing. The framework used in this study will be valuable for advancing research aligned with modern technology requirements and for enhancing understanding of the relationships among GT43 genes in Sorghum bicolor.