Engineering plants as sustainable living devices

Living plants are abundant biological organisms that have evolved adaptive systems to absorb nutrients from the below ground environment, grow autonomously, and cope with biotic and abiotic stresses. By studying and exploiting such complex systems, plants could be engineered into sustainable living materials with the aid of plant nanobionics, wearable technologies, and plant synthetic biology approaches. Plant nanobionics introduce nonnative functionalities into living plants by interfacing them with functional nanomaterials. Wearable technologies adhered to the surface of plant organs can serve as sensors and energy harvesters. Finally, synthetic biology allows the programming of user-defined functionalities in living plants by precisely controlling gene expressions in response to specific stimuli. Through these plant engineering methods, living plants can be converted into advanced and sustainable biomaterials with unique capabilities such as environmental sensing, ambient energy harvesting, and light emission. Herein, recent advances in designing plants as sustainable living materials are comprehensively discussed from engineering- and application-based perspectives. Additionally, the challenges and vision for engineering plants as living devices are highlighted to guide future development in this field.

Automated summary

Living plants can be engineered into sustainable biomaterials with unique capabilities through plant nanobionics, wearable technologies, and plant synthetic biology. These methods allow the introduction of nonnative functionalities, the use of plants as sensors and energy harvesters, and the programming of user-defined functionalities in response to specific stimuli.