Nanoparticle-Mediated Delivery
for Improved Plant Genetic Engineering 

eCIS are phage tail–derived nanomachines that enable direct translocation of protein cargo across cellular membranes. Our work establishes eCIS as a programmable platform for efficient delivery of functional proteins into plant cells, addressing a central limitation in plant biotechnology. A key feature of eCIS systems is their modularity. Both targeting specificity and payload composition can be rationally engineered: receptor-binding proteins can be modified to retarget particles to plant cell surfaces, while effector domains can be replaced with proteins of interest, such as enzymes, transcription factors, or genome-engineering tools. This enables precise control over where and how proteins are delivered, supporting applications that require spatial or cell-type specificity.

We demonstrate that engineered eCIS particles enable efficient, direct delivery of functional proteins into plant cells, resulting in measurable intracellular activity without DNA integration. Delivered cargo retains activity in planta, establishing eCIS as a viable platform for transient, programmable manipulation of plant cellular functions across species and tissue contexts. Delivered proteins can modulate signaling pathways, reprogram gene expression, or perform catalytic activities directly upon entry. A central objective of our research is to translate eCIS, a naturally evolved microbial weapon, into a scalable, programmable delivery technology for plants. By integrating protein engineering, structural biology, and plant gene editing, we aim to define design principles governing targeting efficiency, cargo loading, and intracellular activity. Ultimately, this work establishes eCIS as a new class of biologically derived nanodevices for precision plant engineering, complementing and extending existing delivery modalities.