Self-Assembled Nanocoatings Protect Microbial Fertilizers for Climate-Resilient Agriculture

Overview

Journal JACS Au

Publisher American Chemical Society

Specialty Chemistry

Date 2023 Nov 30

PMID 38034965

Authors

Benjamin Burke

Gang Fan

Pris Wasuwanich

Evan B Moore

Ariel L Furst

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Chemical fertilizers have been crucial for sustaining the current global population by supplementing overused farmland to support consistent food production, but their use is unsustainable. is a nitrogen-fixing bacterium that could be used as a fertilizer replacement, but this microbe is delicate. It is sensitive to stressors, such as freeze-drying and high temperatures. Here, we demonstrate protection of from freeze-drying, high temperatures (50 C), and high humidity using self-assembling metal-phenolic network (MPN) coatings. The composition of the MPN is found to significantly impact its protective efficacy, and with optimized compositions, no viability loss is observed for MPN-coated microbes under conditions where uncoated cells do not survive. Further, we demonstrate that MPN-coated microbes improve germination of seeds by 150% as compared to those treated with fresh . Taken together, these results demonstrate the protective capabilities of MPNs against environmental stressors and represent a critical step towards enabling the production and storage of delicate microbes under nonideal conditions.

Citing Articles

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Jones C JACS Au. 2025; 5(1):1-2.

PMID: 39886582 PMC: 11775708. DOI: 10.1021/jacsau.5c00007.

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