To help crops battle pests, disease, and environmental stress, farmers often turn to broad chemical sprays simply because plants have few natural defenses.
Angela Chen, assistant professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science at Michigan State University, studies how microbes and plants naturally communicate. She then turns those insights into new ways for crops to protect themselves.
Chen and her team uncover the chemical and RNA messages that microbes exchange above and below ground, design nanomaterials that imitate those messages, and build microbes that deliver protective cues directly to plants or pathogens. By strengthening crops from within, her group aims to reduce the heavy reliance on pesticides and fertilizers.
The approach replaces broad chemical treatments with targeted biological guidance. Instead of spraying a field, microbes can be ‘coached’ to warn plants about approaching disease or help them withstand heat, drought, or nutrient shortages.
The nanomaterials, made from sustainable plant waste, can amplify these signals or stabilize them long enough for crops to respond. Together, these systems boost plant resilience while keeping beneficial organisms, pollinators, and waterways safer.
If scaled, this work could help farmers maintain yields with fewer inputs, reduce runoff, and build healthier soils over time. By tapping into nature’s own communication networks, Chen is creating a path toward cleaner, more sustainable agriculture that supports food security without sacrificing environmental health.
To explore Chen’s work in more depth, visit:
- Improving RNA-based crop protection through nanotechnology and insights from cross-kingdom RNA trafficking [Article]
- Fungal small RNAs ride in extracellular vesicles to enter plant cells through clathrin-mediated endocytosis [Article]
- Cross-kingdom RNA trafficking from bacteria to fungi enables plant protection against fungal pathogens [Article]
- Fungal small RNAs ride in extracellular vesicles to enter plant cells through clathrin-mediated endocytosis [Article]
- Artificial nanovesicles for dsRNA delivery in spray‐induced gene silencing for crop protection [Article]
MSU College of Engineering Media and Public Relations page