Development of Abamectin Loaded Plant Virus Nanoparticles for Efficacious Plant Parasitic Nematode Control

• Published in: ACS applied materials & interfaces Vol. 7; no. 18; pp. 9546 - 9553
• Main Authors: Cao, Jing, Guenther, Richard H, Sit, Tim L, Lommel, Steven A, Opperman, Charles H, Willoughby, Julie A
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States American Chemical Society 13.05.2015
• Subjects: Animals; Biological Availability; Caenorhabditis elegans - drug effects; Capsid - chemistry; Crops, Agricultural - drug effects; Crops, Agricultural - parasitology; Ivermectin - analogs & derivatives; Ivermectin - pharmacology; Nanoparticles - chemistry; Nematoda - drug effects; Nicotiana - drug effects; Nicotiana - parasitology; Pest Control, Biological; Plant Diseases - parasitology; Plant Viruses - chemistry; Soil; Solanum lycopersicum - drug effects; Solanum lycopersicum - parasitology; Suspensions; Tylenchoidea - drug effects; abamectin; plant virus nanoparticle (PVN); crop protection; red clover necrotic mosaic virus (RCNMV); soil mobility
• ISSN: 1944-8244; 1944-8252
• DOI: 10.1021/acsami.5b00940

Plant parasitic nematodes are one of the world’s major agricultural pests, causing in excess of $157 billion in worldwide crop damage annually. Abamectin (Abm) is a biological pesticide with a strong activity against a wide variety of plant parasitic nematodes. However, Abm’s poor mobility in the soil compromises its nematicide performance because of the limited zone of protection surrounding the growing root system of the plant. In this study, we manipulated Abm’s soil physical chemistry by encapsulating Abm within the Red clover necrotic mosaic virus (RCNMV) to produce a plant virus nanoparticle (PVN) delivery system for Abm. The transmission electron microscopic and dynamic light scattering characterization of Abm-loaded PVN (PVNAbm) indicated the resultant viral capsid integrity and morphology comparable to native RCNMV. In addition, the PVNAbm significantly increased Abm’s soil mobility while enabling a controlled release strategy for Abm’s bioavailability to nematodes. As a result, PVNAbm enlarged the zone of protection from Meloidogyne hapla root knot nematodes in the soil as compared to treating with free Abm molecules. Tomato seedlings treated with PVNAbm had healthier root growth and a reduction in root galling demonstrating the success of this delivery system for the increased efficacy of Abm to control nematode damage in crops.