Nanoscale nutrients can protect plants from fungal diseases
In soybean plants, the Fusarium virguliforme fungus mottles the leaves (pictured) and leads to “sudden death syndrome,” a leading disease in North America that limits crop yields. Chances are, most , if not all of the produce in your kitchen is threatened by fungal diseases. The threat looms large for foo staples of the world such as rice, wheat, potatoes and maize . Pathogenic fungi are also coming for our coffee, sugarcane, bananas and other economically important crops. Annually, fungal diseases destroy a third of all harvests and pose a dire threat to global food security. To stop the spread of fungal diseases, farmers fumigate the soil with toxic chemicals that lay waste to the land, sparing not even the beneficial microbes teeming in the earth. Or they ply plants with fungicides. But fungicide use is effective only in the short run until the pathogenic fungi evolve resistance against these synthetic chemicals. Now, a new idea is taking root: Help plants stand the...