Amino acid transporters mediate autonomous delivery of nanoparticle vehicles into living plants

Xue Xia; Jiawei Dong; Aijie Li; Yanlin Wang; Yang Liu; Yingfang Zhu; Liang Xu; Zhiyang Jing; Jing Wang; Yan Zou; Shiyong Sun; Lu Wang; Yiqing Lu; Alexander  Soeriyadi; Xuelu Wang; John W. Patrick; Christina E. Offler; Meng Zheng; Chun-Peng Song; Bingyang Shi

doi:10.1038/s41467-025-60829-8

Amino acid transporters mediate autonomous delivery of nanoparticle vehicles into living plants

Xue Xia, Jiawei Dong, Aijie Li, Yanlin Wang, Yang Liu, Yingfang Zhu, Liang Xu, Zhiyang Jing, Jing Wang, Yan Zou, Shiyong Sun, Lu Wang, Yiqing Lu, Alexander Soeriyadi, Xuelu Wang, John W. Patrick, Christina E. Offler, Meng Zheng^*, Chun-Peng Song^*, Bingyang Shi^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

School of Engineering

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

6 Citations (Scopus)

2 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Presence of the cell wall and the lack of streamlined pathways for cellular delivery of external agents into plants is a core challenge of plant biotechnology and crop engineering development. However, both viral and bacterial transmission have their own restrictions and the few non-heavy metal nanodelivery platforms require external forces for tissue penetration. Such dependency limits any high-throughput application considering the large plant numbers to be treated in the field or even laboratory exercises. Herein, we demonstrate Aspartic acid (Asp) decorated poly(ethylene glycol)-block-poly(2-(diisopropylamino)ethyl methacrylate) (Asp-PEG-PDPA) copolymers assembled micelles (Asp/PDPA-NP), a platform that utilises amino acid transporters (AtAAP1 and AtLHT1) as receptors for clathrin-dependent endocytosis, freely translocate to release loaded cargo into various plant tissue/cell types in a species-independent manner within ≤10 minutes through simple spray or co-culture. As proof-of-concept, abscisic acid (ABA)-loaded Asp/PDPA-NP was tested for its efficacy to confer plant drought resistance. Asp/PDPA-NP@ABA reduced the effective ABA dose down to 1 nM (one million-fold) and elicited anti-drought potency in representative eudicot (soybean) and monocot (maize) crop species. Owing to its delivery efficiency, Asp/PDPA-NP holds promise as a potent carrier for diverse chemicals and biomolecules in plant systems.

Original language	English
Article number	6715
Pages (from-to)	1-11
Number of pages	11
Journal	Nature Communications
Volume	16
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-60829-8
Publication status	Published - 21 Jul 2025

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Copyright the Author(s) 2025. Version archived for private and non-commercial use with the permission of the author/s and according to publisher conditions. For further rights please contact the publisher.

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Publisher version (open access)Final published version, 2.55 MBLicence: CC BY-NC-ND

Cite this

Xia, X., Dong, J., Li, A., Wang, Y., Liu, Y., Zhu, Y., Xu, L., Jing, Z., Wang, J., Zou, Y., Sun, S., Wang, L., Lu, Y., Soeriyadi, A., Wang, X., Patrick, J. W., Offler, C. E., Zheng, M., Song, C.-P., & Shi, B. (2025). Amino acid transporters mediate autonomous delivery of nanoparticle vehicles into living plants. Nature Communications, 16, 1-11. Article 6715. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-60829-8

@article{ebb1e262a2804bceaa2ceff38e894ce6,

title = "Amino acid transporters mediate autonomous delivery of nanoparticle vehicles into living plants",

abstract = "Presence of the cell wall and the lack of streamlined pathways for cellular delivery of external agents into plants is a core challenge of plant biotechnology and crop engineering development. However, both viral and bacterial transmission have their own restrictions and the few non-heavy metal nanodelivery platforms require external forces for tissue penetration. Such dependency limits any high-throughput application considering the large plant numbers to be treated in the field or even laboratory exercises. Herein, we demonstrate Aspartic acid (Asp) decorated poly(ethylene glycol)-block-poly(2-(diisopropylamino)ethyl methacrylate) (Asp-PEG-PDPA) copolymers assembled micelles (Asp/PDPA-NP), a platform that utilises amino acid transporters (AtAAP1 and AtLHT1) as receptors for clathrin-dependent endocytosis, freely translocate to release loaded cargo into various plant tissue/cell types in a species-independent manner within ≤10 minutes through simple spray or co-culture. As proof-of-concept, abscisic acid (ABA)-loaded Asp/PDPA-NP was tested for its efficacy to confer plant drought resistance. Asp/PDPA-NP@ABA reduced the effective ABA dose down to 1 nM (one million-fold) and elicited anti-drought potency in representative eudicot (soybean) and monocot (maize) crop species. Owing to its delivery efficiency, Asp/PDPA-NP holds promise as a potent carrier for diverse chemicals and biomolecules in plant systems. ",

author = "Xue Xia and Jiawei Dong and Aijie Li and Yanlin Wang and Yang Liu and Yingfang Zhu and Liang Xu and Zhiyang Jing and Jing Wang and Yan Zou and Shiyong Sun and Lu Wang and Yiqing Lu and Alexander Soeriyadi and Xuelu Wang and Patrick, \{John W.\} and Offler, \{Christina E.\} and Meng Zheng and Chun-Peng Song and Bingyang Shi",

note = "Copyright the Author(s) 2025. Version archived for private and non-commercial use with the permission of the author/s and according to publisher conditions. For further rights please contact the publisher. ",

year = "2025",

month = jul,

day = "21",

doi = "10.1038/s41467-025-60829-8",

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Xia, X, Dong, J, Li, A, Wang, Y, Liu, Y, Zhu, Y, Xu, L, Jing, Z, Wang, J, Zou, Y, Sun, S, Wang, L, Lu, Y, Soeriyadi, A, Wang, X, Patrick, JW, Offler, CE, Zheng, M, Song, C-P & Shi, B 2025, 'Amino acid transporters mediate autonomous delivery of nanoparticle vehicles into living plants', Nature Communications, vol. 16, 6715, pp. 1-11. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-60829-8

TY - JOUR

T1 - Amino acid transporters mediate autonomous delivery of nanoparticle vehicles into living plants

AU - Xia, Xue

AU - Dong, Jiawei

AU - Li, Aijie

AU - Wang, Yanlin

AU - Liu, Yang

AU - Zhu, Yingfang

AU - Xu, Liang

AU - Jing, Zhiyang

AU - Wang, Jing

AU - Zou, Yan

AU - Sun, Shiyong

AU - Wang, Lu

AU - Lu, Yiqing

AU - Soeriyadi, Alexander

AU - Wang, Xuelu

AU - Patrick, John W.

AU - Offler, Christina E.

AU - Zheng, Meng

AU - Song, Chun-Peng

AU - Shi, Bingyang

N1 - Copyright the Author(s) 2025. Version archived for private and non-commercial use with the permission of the author/s and according to publisher conditions. For further rights please contact the publisher.

PY - 2025/7/21

Y1 - 2025/7/21

N2 - Presence of the cell wall and the lack of streamlined pathways for cellular delivery of external agents into plants is a core challenge of plant biotechnology and crop engineering development. However, both viral and bacterial transmission have their own restrictions and the few non-heavy metal nanodelivery platforms require external forces for tissue penetration. Such dependency limits any high-throughput application considering the large plant numbers to be treated in the field or even laboratory exercises. Herein, we demonstrate Aspartic acid (Asp) decorated poly(ethylene glycol)-block-poly(2-(diisopropylamino)ethyl methacrylate) (Asp-PEG-PDPA) copolymers assembled micelles (Asp/PDPA-NP), a platform that utilises amino acid transporters (AtAAP1 and AtLHT1) as receptors for clathrin-dependent endocytosis, freely translocate to release loaded cargo into various plant tissue/cell types in a species-independent manner within ≤10 minutes through simple spray or co-culture. As proof-of-concept, abscisic acid (ABA)-loaded Asp/PDPA-NP was tested for its efficacy to confer plant drought resistance. Asp/PDPA-NP@ABA reduced the effective ABA dose down to 1 nM (one million-fold) and elicited anti-drought potency in representative eudicot (soybean) and monocot (maize) crop species. Owing to its delivery efficiency, Asp/PDPA-NP holds promise as a potent carrier for diverse chemicals and biomolecules in plant systems.

AB - Presence of the cell wall and the lack of streamlined pathways for cellular delivery of external agents into plants is a core challenge of plant biotechnology and crop engineering development. However, both viral and bacterial transmission have their own restrictions and the few non-heavy metal nanodelivery platforms require external forces for tissue penetration. Such dependency limits any high-throughput application considering the large plant numbers to be treated in the field or even laboratory exercises. Herein, we demonstrate Aspartic acid (Asp) decorated poly(ethylene glycol)-block-poly(2-(diisopropylamino)ethyl methacrylate) (Asp-PEG-PDPA) copolymers assembled micelles (Asp/PDPA-NP), a platform that utilises amino acid transporters (AtAAP1 and AtLHT1) as receptors for clathrin-dependent endocytosis, freely translocate to release loaded cargo into various plant tissue/cell types in a species-independent manner within ≤10 minutes through simple spray or co-culture. As proof-of-concept, abscisic acid (ABA)-loaded Asp/PDPA-NP was tested for its efficacy to confer plant drought resistance. Asp/PDPA-NP@ABA reduced the effective ABA dose down to 1 nM (one million-fold) and elicited anti-drought potency in representative eudicot (soybean) and monocot (maize) crop species. Owing to its delivery efficiency, Asp/PDPA-NP holds promise as a potent carrier for diverse chemicals and biomolecules in plant systems.

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105011266367

U2 - 10.1038/s41467-025-60829-8

DO - 10.1038/s41467-025-60829-8

M3 - Article

C2 - 40695826

SN - 2041-1723

VL - 16

SP - 1

EP - 11

JO - Nature Communications

JF - Nature Communications

M1 - 6715

ER -

Amino acid transporters mediate autonomous delivery of nanoparticle vehicles into living plants

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