Interactions of Nanomaterials with Plant Pigments

Abstract

The applications of engineered nanomaterials continue to expand into agri-food production, particularly in relation to nano-enabled agriculture formula-tions and/or colloidal particles. The widespread use of nanomaterials has generated concerns given the impact these nanostructures could be having on biomolecules, cellular homeostasis, and internal compounds. Understanding the interaction mech-anisms between engineered nanomaterials and plant pigments is essential for unbi-ased assessments of their internalization, trafficking, behavior, and fate into cellular structures through a molecular lens. This chapter describes the mechanisms that drive these interactions on the cellular uptake and trafficking of nanomaterials. Furthermore, we discuss different examples of how plant photosynthetic and non-photosynthetic pigments can helpful to understand the behavior of nanomaterials in distinct plant tissues. Finally, we demonstrate some experimental (in vitro) and theo-retical (in silico) methods aimed at monitoring and understanding existing molecular interactions of nanomaterials with plant pigments.