Nanobiosensors: A novel approach in precision agriculture

Abstract

The interdisciplinary nanobiosensors have endless applications in agriculture which directly and indirectly enhance the agricultural yield. After green revolution, farmers started blind application of chemical fertilizers, pesticides, insecticides, and herbicides which caused loss of soil biodiversity and resulted in resistance against pathogens and pests. To know the threshold level of biological interactions at very small scale which helps the farmer to achieve the maximum yield through nanoparticle-mediated material delivery to plants and advanced biosensors. Presently, several kinds of biosensors are considered and utilized that include enzyme-based biosensor, immunosensors, cell- or tissue-based biosensor, nucleic acid biosensors, and thermal and piezoelectric biosensors. Enzyme-based biosensors are being established using immobilization techniques, i.e., covalent or ionic bonding and adsorption of enzymes via van der Waals forces by exploiting enzymes such as oxidoreductases, amino oxidases, polyphenol oxidases, and peroxidases. Antibody-based biosensors had additional affinity in the direction of particular antigens, viz., the antibodies bind specifically to the toxins or pathogens or interact with different components of the immune system of the host. The applications of nanobiosensors are very diverse and vast which includes different areas like virology, ligand fishing, cell biology, cell adhesion, epitope mapping, bacteriology, nucleotide-nucleotide binding, molecular engineering, nucleotide-protein, enzyme mechanisms, and signal transduction. Applications of nanobiosensors are nursing soil conditions for the monitoring of herbicides, pesticides, insecticides, pathogens, fertilizers, and crop growth, detecting food-borne contaminants, and determining the heavy metals (e.g., Hg2+, As3+, and Cu2+), antibiotics, secondary antibody, and residue analysis. These techniques have potential to overcome the various problems in agriculture and will be revolutionized in this sector.