New technologies for the Ecological Transition in agriculture: nanomaterials, SIGS and plant phenotyping

Increased anthropogenic activity and consequent climate change are causing significant damages in the agroecosystem, including worsening environmental stresses on crops and inefficient use of resources. Hence, it becomes essential to develop sustainable solutions to ensure adequate production efficiency and limited impact. Recent innovations include alternatives to be used as partial replacement of agrochemicals for crop protection or nutrition, as well as smart technologies to detect vegetation responses to environment in order to improve agronomic management planning. In this context, the present research firstly aimed to develop efficient ways for sustainable crop protection using natural nanomaterials obtained through circular economy (mainly chitosan-based). These nanoparticles (NPs) have also been employed as carriers for specific double stranded-RNA sequences, aimed at making the so-called Spray-Induced Gene Silencing technology more efficient. This strategy, through topical application of RNAs targeting pathogen genes to plant material, may enable disease control. For this purpose, after preliminary analyses on NPs’ properties (alone and functionalized) and on their behavior when sprayed on tobacco leaves, inhibition tests on Botrytis cinerea were carried out. To do it, NPs conveying dsRNAs with interfering function on fungal metabolism have been employed. Secondly, another experiment was conducted with the aim of developing an investigation method for plant phenotyping. Different traits of the leaf surface of four invasive Amaranthus species were studied, using imaging techniques and multivariate statistical analysis. This method has made it possible to identify traits able to describe plant adaptive responses, useful as supporting information for genotype studies. Both lines of research, as innovative and complementary, are worthy of being developed for the eco-sustainable management of the agro-ecosystem.