Register here to attend the lecture: Recognizing Contributions to STEM: Celebrating Hispanic/Latinx Heritage Month Event Registration
The Recognizing Contributions to STEM lecture series honors School of Chemical Sciences alumni from diverse backgrounds who have made significant contributions in their field.
Markita Landry, Ph.D. ('12, Chemla)
Associate Professor, Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
Associate Professor, Department of Neuroscience
Faculty Scientist, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
University of California-Berkeley
B.S. Chemistry, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, '06
B.A. Physics, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, '06
Certificate in Business Administration, Gies College of Business, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, '09
Ph.D. Chemical Physics (Chemla), University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, '12
Nanoscale approaches for nucleic acid and protein delivery to plants
Wednesday, November 6, 2024
4 pm
Noyes Laboratory 217
Light refreshments provided
Abstract
Genetic engineering of plants is at the core of sustainability efforts, natural product synthesis, and agricultural crop engineering. Plant bioengineering requires delivery of biomolecules for genetic or post- transcriptional manipulation of plants, however, current delivery methods either suffer from host range limitations, low transformation efficiencies, tissue regenerability issues, tissue damage, or unavoidable DNA integration into the host genome. Here, we elucidate particle transport in plant tissues and demonstrate efficient diffusion-based biomolecule delivery several plant species with a suite of pristine and chemically-functionalized high aspect ratio nanomaterials [1]. Efficient DNA delivery and strong protein expression without transgene integration is accomplished in mature Nicotiana benthamiana, Eruca sativa (arugula), Triticum aestivum (wheat) and Gossypium hirsutum (cotton) leaves and arugula protoplasts [2]. Notably, we demonstrate that transgene expression is transient and devoid of transgene integration into the plant host genome, of potential utility for easing regulatory oversight of transformed crops as genetically modified organisms (GMOs) [3, 4]. We also demonstrate nanoparticle-based delivery of small interfering RNA (siRNA) to mature Nicotiana benthamiana leaves with over 95% gene silencing efficiency [5] and use DNA origami and gold nanoparticles to elucidate force-independent transport phenomena of nanoparticles to the plant cell wall [6, 7]. We find that nanomaterials both facilitate biomolecule transport into plant cells, while also protecting polynucleotides from nuclease degradation. Lastly, we demonstrate non-biolistic protein delivery in plants with newly-discovered cell penetrating peptides towards DNA-free genome editing [8]. Our work provides a tool for species- independent, targeted, and passive delivery of genetic material, without transgene integration, into plant cells for diverse plant biotechnology applications.
- Demirer, G.S., Zhang, H., Goh, N.S., Grandio, E.G., Landry, M.P.‡, Carbon nanotube-mediated DNA delivery without transgene integration in intact plants. Nature Protocols (2019)
- Demirer, G.S., Zhang, H., Matos, J., Goh, N., Cunningham, F.J., Sung, Y., Chang, R., Aditham, A.J., , Chio, L., Cho, M.J., Staskawicz, B., Landry, M.P.‡, High Aspect Ratio Nanomaterials Enable Delivery of Functional Genetic Material Without DNA Integration in Mature Plants. Nature Nanotechnology (2019)
- Landry, M.P.‡, Mitter, N.‡ How nanocarriers delivering cargoes in plants can change the GMO landscape. Nature Nanotechnology (2019)
- Demirer, G.S. ‡, Silva, T.N., Jackson, C.T., Thomas, J.B., Ehrhardt, D., Rhee, S.Y. ‡, Mortimer, J.C. ‡, Landry, M.P. ‡ Nanotechnology to advance CRISPR/Cas genetic engineering of plants. Nature Nanotechnology (2021)
- Zhang, H., Zhang, H., Demirer, G.S., Gonzales-Grandio, E., Fan, C., Landry, M.P.‡ Engineering DNA nanostructures for siRNA delivery in plants. Nature Protocols (2020)
- Zhang, H.*, Demirer, G.S.*, Zhang, H., Ye, T., Goh, N.S., Aditham, A.J., Cunningham, F.J., Fan, C., Landry, M.P. Low-dimensional DNA Nanostructures Coordinate Gene Silencing in Mature Plants. PNAS (2019)
- Zhang, H.*, Goh, N.S.*, Wang, J., Demirer, G.S., Butrus, S., Park, S-J, Landry, M.P.‡ Nanoparticle Cellular Internalization is Not Required for RNA Delivery to Mature Plant Leaves. Nature Nanotechnology (2022)
- Wang, J.W., Goh, N., Lien, E., Gonzalez Grandio, E., Landry, M.P.‡ Quantification of cell penetrating peptide mediated delivery of proteins in plant leaves. Nature Communications Biology (2023)
Bio
Markita Landry is an associate professor in the department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and the department of Neuroscience at the University of California, Berkeley. She received a B.S. in Chemistry and a B.A. in Physics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a Ph.D. in Chemical Physics and a Certificate in Business Administration from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and completed an NSF postdoctoral fellowship in Chemical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Her research centers on the development of synthetic nanoparticle-polymer conjugates for imaging neuromodulation in the brain, on the study of lipid nanoparticle-cell membrane interactions, and for the delivery of genetic materials into plants. She is a recipient of over 40 career awards and has also received numerous prizes recognizing her contributions to science, including the 2022 Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Biomedical Science, and the 2024 Blavatnik National Prize as a Laureate in Chemistry.
This lecture is sponsored by the Departments of Chemistry and Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the Chemical Sciences.