Intelligent administration of biological agents by means of nanomaterials: modulation of physiological resistance characters and biocidal action against vine diseases

Supervisor: Prof. Enrico Braidot, Dott.ssa Elisa Petrussa

Nowadays agriculture is going through a period of change and innovation determined by the need to supply sufficient food for the growing world population, while reducing pollution and respecting the environment. Among the latest novelties, nanotechnology is recently generating interest in agricultural and environmental research due to the peculiar properties of some nanomaterials, which make them candidates as ecological alternatives to common agricultural practice.

Nanoparticles (NPs) are materials that can be designed with unique chemical, physical, and biological properties, with the aim of providing some specific functions. Their high surface/volume ratio and the possible functionalization of their surfaces by different reactive groups are suitable features for interaction with other molecules. For this reason, aiming at more efficient and sustainable agronomical practices, they could be directly applied to plants for improving nutrition, growth, as well as inducing metabolic stimulation and protection against pests and pathogens. Moreover, they can also be used as carriers for the delivery of biological agents encapsulated inside them. This latter function is advantageous since NPs can improve the stability, integrity and persistence of these molecules, bringing them easily inside the plant cells and protecting them from external and internal denaturing agents.

Among the different usable NPs, chitosan is interesting since it is natural, cheap, biodegradable, non-toxic and biocompatible, and can induce itself numerous biological responses in plants, concerning their growth and their defence against diseases, in particular through hypersensitivity response (HR) and systemic acquired resistance (SAR). Furthermore, it also shows good performances as a vector for a variety of molecules when applied in a nanosized configuration. Chitosan is capable to be doped with genetic material too, and this opens up the possibility of a synergistic action between its effects and those of specific nucleotide sequences in pathogen control. In fact, it is possible to introduce pathogen nucleotide sequences into plants in order to exploit the RNA interference (RNAi) mechanism, which plays critical roles in host self-defence.

The present research project focuses on the application of nanoparticles as carriers for biological agents, with the aim of improving their effectiveness and durability, and at the same time inducing crop response to biotic and abiotic stresses. The first step will focus in particular on the effects of chitosan functionalized with nucleotide sequences. After an initial phase of characterization of the nanoparticles and of their ability to bind these molecules, the experiments will move to plant tests, in collaboration with the National Council for Agricultural Research (CREA) of Conegliano (TV). The final goal of the project is to verify the efficiency of these applications against some diseases of grapevine (Vitis vinifera L.), since its relevant economic value provides for intensive treatments, whose optimization is mandatory according to a more eco-sustainable approach.

Biography and Contacts:

Dora Scarpin was born in Palmanova (UD), Italy, on 03/02/1994.

In 2017 she obtained the Bachelor’s Degree in Agricultural Sciences, and in March 2020 the Master's Degree in Agricultural Sciences and Technologies, both with full marks and honours, at the University of Udine. During the three-year degree course, she gained experience in plant pathology and wrote an experimental thesis on the nutritional deficiency of boron affecting horticultural plants in hydroponics. The master's degree thesis instead concerned aquaponics, an emerging methodology of plant cultivation for sustainable agriculture.

In September 2020 she was recognized and awarded by the university reward system as the best graduate in Agricultural Sciences and Technologies of the academic year 2018/2019.

In November 2020 she started the PhD course in Agricultural Sciences and Biotechnology at the University of Udine, with a project concerning nanotechnologies for eco-sustainable agriculture.

scarpin.dora@spes.uniud.it