FRIAS Colloquium - Peng Zhang

Nano-enabled Sustainable agriculture

Crop yield is mainly influenced by stresses caused by climatic factors, agronomic factors, pests and nutrient availability in the soil. Developing tolerant cultivars using genetic manipulation is the most important strategy currently to cope with these stresses; however, the overall progress is slow and complete success is not yet achieved due to the difficulty in identifying key genetic determinants of stress tolerance. A complementary approach is the use of nanotechnology to promote plant growth by mitigating stress-induced signalling pathways, and thus increase crop yields, although its full potential has not yet been discovered and the underlying mechanisms by which NMs enhance plant growth, provide resistance to pathogens and more are not yet fully understood which hampers its progress and widespread adoption. The vision of my project is to find new, simple, and robust strategies to enhance plant tolerance to stress using nano-enabled approaches, and to elaborate the chemical and biological fundamentals (mechanisms) underpinning the plant responses to the nanomaterials in order to ensure regulatory and consumer confidence.