Nanotechnology in Agriculture: Propagating, Perpetuating, and Protecting Life

Natural agricultural production is an open system, both energy and matters are exchanged freely in this system involving interactions of geosphere (especially pedosphere), biosphere, and atmosphere. Agriculture provides crops for food and industry, fiber, fuel, auto-fuel and drugs. On one hand it faces ever escalating food prices and farmer’s suicides, and on the other hand input use efficiency is low. Present agricultural practices have made harvests toxic, mother’s milk a poison, and breathing-air venom. In this background, nanotechnology brings new hope. Nanotechnology is an interdisciplinary venture-field that converge science, engineering, and agriculture and food systems into one. The Environmental Protection Agency of the US has defined nanotechnology as the understanding and control of matter at dimensions of roughly 1-100 nm, where unique physical properties make novel applications possible. The triple problems of agriculture – over-dependence on supplementary irrigation, vulnerability to climate, and poor input and energy conversion to products – can be solved by using nanotechnology, provided agricultural scientists seek a chance to try and cooperate with scientists of kindred disciplines. Nanotechnology is new to agriculture; a ventured field of less than a decade old. But, already success has been achieved for manufacturing nano-pesticides and nano-fertilizer, in disease elimination in poultry, in food packaging, use of agricultural waste, nanosensors, precision agricultural practices, and in livestock and fisheries. Nanotechnology holds the potential to revolutionize agriculture and food systems in the areas of nano-fertilizers, pesticide career, microfluidics, BioMEMS, nucleic acid bioengineering, smart treatment delivery systems, nanobioprocessing, bioanalytical nanosensors, nanomaterials, bioselective surfaces, environmental processing, pathogen detection, plant/animal production, biosecurity, molecular and cellular biology, protection of the environment through the reduction and conversion of agricultural materials into valuable products, design and development of new nanocatalysts to convert vegetable oils into biobased fuels and biodegradable industrial solvents, and in controlled ecological life support system, to name a few

Nanomaterials: Look at the Earth

Nanotechnology promises to be the greatest technological breakthrough in history, doing for our control of matter what computers did for our control of information. The origins of nanoscience can be traced to clay mineralogy and crystallography when it was discovered that clay minerals were crystalline and of micrometer size. The unit cell dimensions of clay minerals are in nanometer scale in all three axes (x, y, and z). The advantages of clays are: (i) their ordered arrangements, (ii) their large adsorption capacity, (iii) their shielding against sunlight (ultraviolet radiation), (iv) their ability to concentrate organic chemicals, and (v) their ability to serve as polymerization templates. Clay minerals in nanoforms played a catalytic role in the synthesis of the ribosome in RNA that led to genesis of life on Earth. The history of Earth suggests that the late Precambrian oxygenation led to the inception of a ‘clay mineral factory’ that triggered the radical evolutionary diversification of Neoproterozoic life due to enhanced burial of organic carbon. High activity clays protected organic matter from reoxygenation, allowing a corresponding quantity of O2 to accumulate in the environment. The inseparable association of clays with lifeforms makes them most desirable in manufacturing nanoparticles. Clays have been extensively used in industry, but as concern for environmental sustainability grows, clay minerals find new takers from all conceivable forms of industries. Nanotechnology literature is flooded with clay-polymers for their possible use in high strength material manufacturing, for ecological life support systems, removal of contaminants from water and wastes, and as catalysts in chemical reactions to reduce energy consumption

Clays: Colloidal Properties in Nanodomain

The ever-growing application of clays in nanotechnology rests on fundamental principles of colloid chemistry. They make soils as nature’s great electrostatic chemical reactor. Highly anisotropic and often irregular particle shape, broad particle size distribution, different types of charges within the unit cells, heterogeneity of layer charges, pronounced CEC, dis-articulation and flexibility of layers, and different modes of aggregation make clays different from other colloidal materials. Their inseparable association with the genesis of life on Earth and evolutionary diversification of Neoproterozoic life is a safety-belt of nanotechnology. 

Nanotechnology promises to be the greatest technological breakthrough in history, doing for our control of matter what computers did for our control of information. The origins of nanoscience can be traced to clay mineralogy and crystallography when it was discovered that clay minerals were crystalline and of micrometer size. The unit cell dimensions of clay minerals are in nanometer scale in all three axes (x, y, and z). The advantages of clays are: (i) their ordered arrangements, (ii) their large adsorption capacity, (iii) their shielding against sunlight (ultraviolet radiation), (iv) their ability to concentrate organic chemicals, and (v) their ability to serve as polymerization templates. Clays protected organic matter from reoxygenation during the late Precambrian period, allowing a corresponding quantity of O2 to accumulate in the environment. The inseparable association of clays with lifeforms makes them most desirable in manufacturing nanoparticles. Clays have been extensively used in industry, but as concern for environmental sustainability grows, clay minerals find new takers from all conceivable forms of industries. Nanotechnology literature is flooded with clay-polymers for their possible use in high strength material manufacturing, for ecological life support system, removal of contaminants from water and wastes, and as catalysts in chemical reactions to reduce energy consumption. 
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Nanoscience and Nano-Technology: Cracking Prodigal Farming

Nano-science coupled with nano-technology has emerged as possible cost-cutting measure to prodigal farming and environmental clean-up operations. It has ushered as a new interdisciplinary field by converging various science disciplines, and is highly relevant to agricultural and food systems. Environmental Protection Agency of USA defined nanotechnology as the understanding and control of matter at dimensions of roughly 1-100 nm, where unique physical properties make novel applications possible. By this definition all soil-clays, many chemicals derived from soil organic matter (SOM), several soil microorganisms fall into this category. Apart from native soil-materials, many new nanotech products are entering into soil system, some of which are used for agricultural production and some others for many other purposes.

Nano-science (also nanotechnology) has found applications in controlling release of nitrogen, characterization of soil minerals, studies of weathering of soil minerals and soil development, micro-morphology of soils, nature of soil rhizosphere, nutrient ion transport in soil-plant system, emission of dusts and aerosols from agricultural soil and their nature, zeoponics, and precision water farming. In its stride, nanotechnology converges soil mineralogy with imaging techniques, artificial intelligence, and encompass bio molecules and polymers with microscopic atoms and molecules, and macroscopic properties (thermodynamics) with microscopic properties (kinetics, wave theory, uncertainty principles, etc.), to name a few. 

Some of the examples include clinoloptolite and other zeolite based substrates, and Fe-, Mn-, and Cu- substituted synthetic hydroxyapatites that have made it possible to grow crops in space stations and at Antarctica. This has eliminated costs of repeated launching of space crafts. A disturbing fact is that the fertilizer use efficiency is 20-50 percent for nitrogen, and 10-25 percent for phosphorus (<1% for rock phosphate in alkaline calcareous soils). With nano-fertilizers emerging as alternatives to conventional fertilizers, build ups of nutrients in soils and thereby eutrophication and drinking water contamination may be eliminated. In fact, nano-technology has opened up new opportunities to improve nutrient use efficiency and minimize costs of environmental protection. It has helped to divulge to recent findings that plant roots and microorganisms can directly lift nutrient ions from solid phase of minerals (that includes so-called susceptible (i.e., easily weatherable, as well as non-susceptible minerals)

Eutrophication: Can nanophosphorous control this menace?

Eutrophication is a threat to quality of surface and ground water bodies (SWB) and to bio-diversity of the aquatic eco-system. One of the causes of P accumulation in SWB is its excess application as a fertilizer on agricultural lands. Phosphorus buffering also contributes to eutrophication and remains a major problem years after the release of P is brought under control. It could be discerned from many experiments conducted world over that addition of small amount of P can remove excess P from soils, provided the solution P is maintained in such a manner that productivity is sustained, and nano-P could possibly play a role in it. In such endeavours, P must be applied to soils in amount exact to the requirement of crop. Of course ecological cautions of use of nano-P must not be ignored. Nanoscience approach can deal with the twin contradictions – between low solubility and excess application by opening new avenues to improve nutrient use efficiency and reduce P build ups in soils and thereby reducing its load in SWB and checking contamination in drinking water. Many P fertilizers contain heavy metals, which can be eliminated by nano-P. The success of zeophonics demonstrates that a system can be made self-supporting, and can supply nutrients to plants for a long time. To comprehend P dynamics, land and SWB system must be treated holistically, and sub-divided into components, each with realistic independent system-variables coupled with the processes, which tie these system variables. In nano-P ventures high resolution imaging not only provides evidence of the changes that occur in various phases, but is also an indispensable tool to understand how P dynamics operate

A static verification approach for architectural integration of mixed-signal integrated circuits

In this paper we present a static method for verifying the proper integration of analog and mixed-signal macroblocks into an integrated circuit. We consider the problem in a setting where there is no golden reference for verifying the validity of the interconnections between the blocks. The proposed verification methodology relies on an abstract modeling of the functional behavior of the blocks and a set of consistency criteria defined over the composition of these abstract models. A new formalism called mode sequence chart (MSeqC) has been presented for capturing the behavior of the blocks at a level of abstraction that is suitable for interconnection verification. We present rules to compose the MSeqCs of each block in an integrated design and present three criteria that indicate possible interconnection faults. We present a tool called AMS-IV (AMS-interconnection verification) that takes the design netlist as input, the MSeqC model of each design block as reference, and tests the three criteria

Negative regulation of fibrin polymerization and clot formation by nanoparticles of silver

Thrombolytic therapy in acute stroke has reduced ischemia; however, it is also associated with increased incidence of intracerebral hemorrhage and expanding stroke. Platelets and fibrin are the major components of thrombi. Since fibrin is available in large concentration at lesion sites and in all types of thrombi, it is an obvious target for majority of antithrombotic therapies. Previously we have demonstrated innate antiplatelet properties with nanosilver. It can effectively prevent platelet activation in response to physiological agonists, under both in vitro as well as ex vivo conditions, and immobilize and stabilize proteins. Here we report for the first time that nanosilver can significantly retard fibrin polymerization kinetics both in pure and plasma-incorporated systems and hence can impede thrombus formation. We also discuss the conformational changes ensued upon fibrinogen following interaction with nanosilver. Together with its inherent antiplatelet and antibacterial properties, capacity to inhibit fibrin polymerization can open up possibilities of newer biomedical application and research potential involving silver nanoparticles

Structural features of human histone acetyltransferase p300 and its complex with p53

The protein p300 is a multifunctional transcriptional coactivator that plays pivotal role in several cellular functions. Although structures of several domains have been solved in isolation, the structures of full-length protein (p300 FL) or its complexes with transcription activators are completely unknown. Herein, we applied atomic force microscopy to visualize p300 FL. We found that it is almost prolate ellipsoidal in shape, having several bulges. We further identified the functionally significant N-terminal and C-terminal regions, by applying domain-specific antibodies and found that they are located near one end and centre of the molecule, respectively. Importantly, we have visualized the complex between p300 FL and tumor suppressor protein p53. The relevance of these data in understanding dynamics of p300 during acetylation and transcription will be mentioned

UDP-Gal: N-acetylglucosamine β 1–4 galactosyltransferase expressing live attenuated parasites as vaccine for visceral leishmaniasis

As compared to cutaneous leishmaniasis, vaccination against visceral leishmaniasis (VL) has received limited attention. In this study, we demonstrate for the first time that an UDP-Galactose: N-acetylglucosamine β 1–4 galactosyltransferase (GenBank Accession No. EF159943) expressing attenuated LD clonal population (A-LD) is able to confer protection against the experimental challenge with the virulent LD AG83 parasite. A-LD was also effective in established leishmania infection. The vaccinated animals showed both cell mediated (in vitro T-cell proliferation, and DTH response) and humoral responses (Th1 type). These results demonstrate the potential of the attenuated clones as an immunotherapeutic and immunoprophylactic agent against visceral leishmaniasis