Phytic acid-polymerized carbon dots efficiently inhibit various plant pathogens growth and function as a protective agent for controlling crop diseases

To safely control crop diseases, development and application of nanomaterials is regarded as a dominant trend in plant protection. Phytic acid (PA), the main storage form of phosphorus in crop seeds, has been widely used as an inhibitor of foodborne bacterial pathogens. However, whether PA can be developed into an anti-plant pathogens nanomaterial is unclear. Herein, to increase PA’s cellular permeability, we developed PA-polymerized carbon dots (PCDs), which have an average diameter of about 3 nm and emit autofluorescence. PCDs inhibited rice blast fungus growth by targeting actin filament and depolarizing the mycelial cells. Moreover, PCDs, compared with PA, also showed high efficiency in inhibiting rice blight bacterium by disrupting the cell membrane integrity. Notably, PCDs possessed broad-spectrum antifungal and antibacterial activities, and could be applied as a protective agent to control various crop diseases. Therefore, our results provide a strategy for managing plant diseases by utilizing the PA nanomaterial.