Editorial: Magnetobiology and Chronobiology: New Opportunities for Smart Phytoprotection

Guijun Wan ^1* Gregory Sword ² Juan Du ³ Qiuying Huang ⁴ Wenfeng Chen ⁵ Eric Warrant ⁶

• ¹ State Key Laboratory of Agricultural and Forestry Biosecurity, College of Plant Protection, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, China
• ² Department of Entomology, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, United States
• ³ Key Laboratory for Monitory and Green Control of Crop Pest, Department of Entomology, College of Plant Protection, China Agricultural University, Beijing, China
• ⁴ Hubei Insect Resources Utilization and Sustainable Pest Management Key Laboratory, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, China
• ⁵ Institute of Life Sciences, College of Biological Science and Engineering, Fuzhou University, Fuzhou, China
• ⁶ Lund Vision Group, Department of Biology, Lund University, Lund, Sweden

Smart Phytoprotection is an innovative interdisciplinary field integrating plant sciences with advanced technologies, aimed at developing sustainable, precise, and responsive solutions to protect crops against environmental and biotic stressors (Huang and Shu, 2021). Two rapidly advancing but relatively underutilized disciplines, magnetobiology (Binhi andRubin, 2022, Zhang, 2023) and chronobiology (Dunlap et al., 2004, Numata andTomioka, 2023), offer unique opportunities for more effective and ecologically sound plant protection strategies. Magnetobiology investigates the effects of magnetic fields on living organisms, while Chronobiology studies biological rhythms and their responses to environmental factors. The magnetoresponse of the circadian clock has been independently identified by multiple research groups (Krylov et al., 2022, Fedele et al., 2014, Yoshii et al., 2009), suggesting a fundamental interplay between magnetoreception and circadian mechanisms. Furthermore, the widespread conservation of both magnetoresponse (Zhang, 2023, Lin et al., 2020) and circadian regulation (Dunlap et al., 2004, Dunlap, 1999) across diverse taxa highlights their evolutionary and biological significance. Over the past two decades, the fields of magnetobiology and chronobiology have advanced considerably, opening new avenues for interdisciplinary applications. However, their integration into Smart Phytoprotection remains largely unexplored, presenting potential for new innovations in this field. We sincerely thank all contributing authors for their valuable research and hope these insights will 95 inspire further advancements in Smart Phytoprotection. 96