Nano Sensors for Studying Biochemical Pathways in Plants

As the world population is increasing exponentially, food securityFood security and availability is becoming a cause of concern around the globe. There is a need to look for solutions that support improved plant healthPlant health, production yield, secure and continual food productionFood production along with generation of renewable energy sources. In order to overcome these challenges, a detailed knowledge of plant biology has become a compulsion. An important aspect related to these challenges is to elucidate the numerous biochemical pathwaysBiochemical pathways present in plants. The plant metabolic or biochemical pathwaysBiochemical pathways play a central role in its growthGrowth and developmentDevelopment. Therefore, the study of these pathways becomes central to understand the plant physiologyPlant physiology. A number of techniques and methodology are employed to recognize the role of biomoleculesBiomolecule and metabolites involved in these pathways and various new fieldsField are also being developed for studying the plant biochemical pathwaysBiochemical pathways. The most widely used techniques for detecting plant biochemical pathwaysBiochemical pathways include isotope tracking, computational techniques and phylogenetic analysis. In this chapter, we have provided an outline of the major plant biochemical pathwaysBiochemical pathways that play an important role in plant metabolism like glycolysisGlycolysis, pentose phosphate pathwayPentose phosphate pathway, TCA (Tri-Carboxylic Acid) cycle, isoprenoid pathwayIsoprenoid pathway, photosynthesisPhotosynthesis, photorespirationPhotorespiration etc. Further, different methodsMethod that are used for detectionDetection of these biochemical pathwaysBiochemical pathways are discussed with emphasis on recent technologiesTechnology including biosensorsBiosensor and nanosensorsNanosensors. Out of all the recently developed techniques, sensing technologySensing technology and nano sensorsNanosensors have emerged as principal tools for their handiness and incomparable efficiency.