Perspectives of Nano-Materials and Nanobiosensors in Food Safety and Agriculture

Abstract

Nanobiosensor is one type of biosensor made up with usage of nanomaterials i.e., nanoparticles and nanostructures. Because of the nanomaterials’ unique properties such as good conductivity, and physicochemical, electrochemical, optical, magnetic and mechanical properties, Nanobiosensors are highly reliable and more sensitive in biosensing approaches over conventional sensors which is having various limitation in detection. Quantum dots, nanotubes, nanowires, magnetic and other nanoparticles enhance sensitivity and lower limit of detection by amplifying signals and providing novel signal transduction mechanisms enable detection of a very low level of food contaminants, pesticides, foodborne pathogens, toxins and plant metabolites. Nanobiosensors are having a lot of scope in sustainable agriculture because of its detecting ability i.e., sensing changes occurred in molecular level. So it can be utilized to find out the variations or modification of plant metabolities, volatiles, gas exchange, hormonal and ion concentration etc. which are the indicators of various harsh environmental stresses (abiotic), biotic and physiological stress. Identification of the stress in the starting stage itself will help us to avoid intensive plant damage and prevent yield losses created by the stress. Nanosensors can be used in smart farming, in which all the environmental factors related to plant growth like temperature, water, pH, humidity, nutritional factor etc. are measured and precaution taken to control the factors which reduce the crop production with the help of IOT platform, thereby enhance the productivity. In this review, discussed about nanobiosensors for detection of food contaminants and various application and its potential in agriculture.