Nanotechnology-enabled dsRNA-based product development for crop protection

초록

Double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) crop protection is advancing through two distinct product routes: transformative approaches, including host-induced gene silencing (HIGS) and plastid-expressed dsRNA, and non-transformative approaches, including spray-induced gene silencing (SIGS), root or trunk delivery, and postharvest application. Translation is constrained not only by RNA interference biology but also by production quality, environmental instability, plant and target-organism barriers, inconsistent uptake, formulation release, field dose, economics, regulatory evidence, and resistance. This Review, therefore treats a field-ready RNA biopesticide as an integrated product rather than as dsRNA paired with a novel carrier. We propose a six-step framework that (I) defines the active ingredient and production route; (II) diagnoses the dominant exposure failure; (III) selects formulation chemistry by function; (IV) measures the deposition-to-phenotype causal chain; (V) benchmarks manufacturing cost, effective grams per hectare, and reapplication interval; and (VI) develops regulatory, environmental, and resistance evidence before scale-up. The analysis distinguishes in vitro transcription, bacterial or other in vivo production, cell-free synthesis, plant expression, and plastid expression; compares naked and adjuvanted RNA with layered double hydroxide (LDH)/BioClay, chitosan, liposomal and nanovesicle systems, carbon dots, mesoporous silica, calcium phosphate (CaP), zeolitic imidazolate framework-8 (ZIF-8), star polycations (SPc), guanylated polymers, peptide/protein carriers, RNA nanostructures, circular dsRNA, and loop-ended dsRNA; and relates each platform to the failure mode it can plausibly solve. Biological competence is evaluated separately for viruses, fungi and oomycetes, insects, nematodes, and plant tissues, including uptake, intracellular trafficking, order-specific double-stranded RNA-degrading enzyme (dsRNase) activity, systemic movement, and negative or conflicting evidence. Field and commercial examples are used to separate laboratory possibility from deployable performance. Finally, RNA-sequence toxicity, production impurities, and nanomaterial-carrier hazards are separated within a region-aware regulatory framework. This failure-mode-driven perspective clarifies why no universal carrier exists and identifies the comparative evidence needed to develop reproducible, economically credible, and resistance-managed dsRNA crop-protection products. © 2026 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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