Nanobiotechnology meets plant cell biology: Carbon nanotubes as organelle targeting nanocarriers

For years, nanotechnology has shown great promise in the fields of biomedical and biotechnological sciences and medical research. In this review, we demonstrate its versatility and applicability in plant cell biology studies. Specifically, we discuss the ability of functionalized carbon nanotubes to penetrate the plant cell wall, target specific organelles, probe protein-carrier activity and induce organelle recycling in plant cells. We also, shed light on prospective applications of carbon nanomaterials in cell biology and plant cell transformation. © 2013 The Royal Society of Chemistry.

Citation

Serag, M. F., Kaji, N., Habuchi, S., Bianco, A., & Baba, Y. (2013). Nanobiotechnology meets plant cell biology: carbon nanotubes as organelle targeting nanocarriers. RSC Advances, 3(15), 4856. doi:10.1039/c2ra22766e

Sponsors

This work was partly supported by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) through its "Funding Program for World-Leading Innovative R&D on Science and Technology (FIRST Program)" and Nanotechnology Platform Program (Molecule and Material Synthesis) of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), Japan. M.F.S. is grateful to the MEXT and JSPS for financing his Doctoral program and Postdoctoral appointment respectively. A.B. wishes to thank CNRS and JSPS for the invited fellowship in the framework of the Invitation Fellowship Program for Research in Japan (ID No. S-12072). The experimental work and data analysis performed by our group were done in the Department of Applied Chemistry, Nagoya University, Japan.