In practicing the concept of sustainable development, we break down the vision of "making the world a better place" into a concrete practical exploration. Let the power of plants themselves become a solution, and take action in a controllable and green way to contribute to food security and ecological protection.
Traditional agriculture is highly dependent on natural conditions. When faced with drought, pests and diseases, extreme weather, and other conditions during the planting period, it can lead to reduced crop yield and quality, or even result in crop failure, directly threatening the livelihoods of farmers.
Crops have insufficient stress resistance and are difficult to cope with changing environments. The 2023 report by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) reveals that disasters have caused massive losses of up to $3.8 trillion to global agriculture over the past 30 years, with drought accounting for over 65% of the impact on agriculture. The annual crop losses caused by pests and diseases worldwide are as high as 20% -40%, equivalent to the food gap of about 1 billion people per year. What is even more worrying is that climate change is exacerbating these threats, endangering global food security and livelihoods, which means that agricultural production models highly dependent on the natural environment will face greater challenges.
In the face of these global challenges, our project activates the plant's own protective mechanisms through precise artificial light regulation. By verifying the wax synthesis pathway of tobacco NbHY5-NbCER1, we found that light, an artificially controllable external condition, can accurately regulate wax content. This also means that through light regulation, crops can become stronger on their own, allowing them to maintain healthy growth under adverse environmental conditions, reduce yield losses caused by drought, diseases, etc., maintain stable harvests, and ensure sustainable income sources. At the same time, reducing the use of pesticides and fertilizers can lower production costs, and the wax layer of crops is uniform, resulting in better fruit quality, less likely to rot after harvesting, and more competitive in the market, further improving farmers' income levels. Effective food supply will also take another step towards achieving the sustainable goal of 'zero hunger'.
In the face of these global challenges, our project activates the plant's own protective mechanisms through precise artificial light regulation. By verifying the wax synthesis pathway of tobacco NbHY5-NbCER1, we found that light, an artificially controllable external condition, can accurately regulate wax content. This also means that through light regulation, crops can become stronger on their own, allowing them to maintain healthy growth under adverse environmental conditions, reduce yield losses caused by drought, diseases, etc., maintain stable harvests, and ensure sustainable income sources. At the same time, reducing the use of pesticides and fertilizers can lower production costs, and the wax layer of crops is uniform, resulting in better fruit quality, less likely to rot after harvesting, and more competitive in the market, further improving farmers' income levels. Effective food supply will also take another step towards achieving the sustainable goal of 'zero hunger'.
Agricultural production faces the dilemma of difficult coordination between ensuring crop yield and protecting the ecological environment. In agricultural cultivation, when faced with issues such as nutrient supply for plant growth and pest control, it is common to rely on fertilizing crops and spraying pesticides to solve these problems. These measures not only ensure crop growth, but also have many adverse effects, such as long-term excessive use of pesticides not only leading to increased resistance of pests and pathogens, but also chemical residues adhering to crops, infiltrating soil, polluting water sources, and potentially affecting the ecological environment. In the post harvest process, chemical intervention is also relied upon. In order to maintain the appearance and extend the shelf life of fruits and vegetables, chemical preservatives are commonly used in the post harvest processing, such as manual waxing and cold chain transportation and storage. Consumers also rely on refrigerators for storage after purchasing. Not only does it lead to the residue of chemicals on the surface of fruits and vegetables, forming potential food safety hazards, but it also brings high energy consumption and carbon emissions, exacerbating the environmental burden. From fields to dining tables, it is necessary to reduce dependence on pesticides, chemical preservatives, and energy consumption.
We use the power of plants themselves instead of chemical intervention. As a natural protective barrier for plants, epidermal wax plays a role in resisting drought and pathogens, as well as reducing post harvest water loss and decay. This will reduce the use of chemicals at the source, utilizing the natural preservation function of wax to reduce dependence on high-energy cold chains and alleviate environmental burden. The ultimate goal is to achieve environmental friendliness and stable crop yields.
In reality, many advanced scientific technologies are difficult to promote due to their high cost. For example, smart greenhouses and advanced cold chain systems require significant initial investment and relatively high maintenance costs in the future. Therefore, often only large agricultural enterprises or economically developed regions can afford it, and it is difficult to achieve in resource scarce areas. Especially for small farmers, if they need to bear higher production costs in uncertain income situations, they are more inclined to adopt conservative traditional planting methods.
Therefore, our project takes into account the actual situation of a wide range of farmers and adopts low-cost adaptation. We have verified the feasibility of "light regulated wax" in experiments, which does not require high-end equipment and is suitable for small and medium-sized farmers. Light equipment such as LED plant lights can flexibly supplement light according to weather and crop growth cycle needs, enhance resistance with wax, ensure crop yield while using fewer pesticides, and extend the shelf life of harvested fruits and vegetables. It is particularly suitable for small and medium-sized farmers and areas with insufficient cold chain coverage. Realize the unity of ecological and economic benefits with low-cost investment.
The traditional approach to enhancing plant resistance mainly relies on genetically modified technology, and the controversy surrounding genetically modified foods has always existed. The two core issues are public acceptance and controversy over ecological risks.
We have broken away from the traditional framework of thinking and focused on the impact of external conditions on plants themselves. Adopting a non GMO strategy, by precisely controlling the light intensity, activating the plant's own wax synthesis pathway, and improving the plant's stress resistance and post harvest preservation ability without changing genes. This scheme not only avoids potential ethical controversies and ecological safety concerns of gene editing technology, but also achieves the advantages of on-demand regulation and easy operation.
This technology has low requirements for the user's professional background and does not require complex professional knowledge. Farmers only need to refer to the best lighting scheme, supplement lighting according to the weather and different growth cycles of crops, and operate lighting equipment simply, greatly reducing the threshold for technical use. Even in areas with limited education and relatively scarce resources, it has high feasibility and promotional value, achieving safe and inclusive agricultural sustainability.
Plant epidermal wax, as a renewable and fully biodegradable natural lipid material, can serve as a green and sustainable alternative to industrial synthetic wax. Industrial vegetable wax sources, such as soybean wax, carnauba wax, candelabra wax, etc., are gradually replacing petroleum based wax and have been applied in many fields, for example, the natural moisturizing properties of waxes, and in cosmetics, they are used for lipstick, face cream, lotion and other products; In the food industry, as a coating for food and fruits and vegetables, it can extend the shelf life. In addition, it is also applied in fields such as pharmaceuticals, packaging, lubricants, etc.
Our project research is based on Nicotiana benthamiana, which induces efficient expression of its own wax synthesis pathway through precise regulation of light, significantly improving leaf surface wax content and performance. Our tobacco has a short growth cycle and mature agricultural planting technology, making it easier to achieve large-scale and low-cost raw material supply compared to existing plant wax sources on the market.
Our tobacco plant wax material is derived from plant growth and can reduce industrial carbon emissions and microplastic pollution from the source. Wax products can naturally degrade after use and will not cause a persistent burden on the environment. Providing environmentally friendly and low-cost raw material alternatives for industrial manufacturing has also expanded the application value of agricultural crops in high value-added green materials.
We foresee the possibility of project sustainability in our experimental data, just as plants gradually accumulate wax to resist environmental pressures. We are also transforming this vision into practical solutions through the continuous accumulation of knowledge.
[1] FAO. (2023). The impact of disasters on agriculture and food security 2023: Avoiding and reducing losses through investment in resilience. Rome. https://doi.org/10.4060/cc7900en
[2] Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). (2021). The impact of disasters and crises on agriculture and food security: 2021. Rome: FAO. https://doi.org/10.4060/cb3673en