Coping with the Challenges of Abiotic Stress in Plants: New Dimensions in the Field Application of Nanoparticles

Abstract

Abiotic stress in plants is a crucial issue worldwide, especially heavy-metal contaminants, salinity, and drought. These stresses may raise a lot of issues such as the generation of reactive oxygen species, membrane damage, loss of photosynthetic efficiency, etc. that could alter crop growth and developments by affecting biochemical, physiological, and molecular processes, causing a significant loss in productivity. To overcome the impact of these abiotic stressors, many strategies could be considered to support plant growth including the use of nanoparticles (NPs). However, the majority of studies have focused on understanding the toxicity of NPs on aquatic flora and fauna, and relatively less attention has been paid to the topic of the beneficial role of NPs in plants stress response, growth, and development. More scientific attention is required to understand the behavior of NPs on crops under these stress conditions. Therefore, the present work aims to comprehensively review the beneficial roles of NPs in plants under different abiotic stresses, especially heavy metals, salinity, and drought. This review provides deep insights about mechanisms of abiotic stress alleviation in plants under NP application.

Effects of Zinc Oxide Nanoparticles on Physiological and Anatomical Indices in Spring Barley Tissues

“…Due to their small size, NPs can penetrate plant cell walls, enter the apoplast, and travel to the aerial part. The processes of Zn uptake and partitioning in plant tissues are highly controlled [ 15 , 48 ].…”

“…The application of ZnO NPs in agriculture has indicated both positive and negative impacts on plant growth [ 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 ]. The foliar application of 10 mg/L ZnO NPs expressed positive impacts on chlorophyll, phosphorus, and protein contents in Cyamopsis tetragonoloba [ 16 ]; 160 mg/kg promoted the seed yield of Glycine max [ 17 ], 8 mg/L improved the enzymatic activities of Lycopersicon esculentum [ 12 , 18 ] and boosted the plant defense system [ 19 ].…”

A review on nanobioremediation approaches for restoration of contaminated soil

“…Plus, some of these processes are energy-intensive, which makes them expensive, and they may also leave concentrated hazardous waste residues that require additional treatment and disposal (Wuana and Okieimen, 2011;Chauhan et al, 2020). On the flip side, in-situ remediation methods benefit greatly from the peculiar characteristics of NPs (Kumari et al, 2021;Rajput et al, 2021b). Thus, in-situ NBR can annihilate the need for draining out of groundwater and transportation of contaminated soils to treatment and disposal sites.…”

“…Advancement in nanotechnology and nanoscience provide new directions to research and development in almost every field of science. It is an expanding research field that involves structures, devices, and systems with unique properties owing to the arrangement of their atoms at the nanoscale (1-100 nm) (Bayda et al, 2019;Rajput et al, 2020b;2021b). In recent decades, nanotechnology has been used in a range of contexts, notably medicine, textiles, pharmaceutics, electronics, optics, cosmetics, sports, and many others.…”

Phytonanotechnology applications in modern agriculture

“…The change in climate around the world results in extreme temperature, salinity, drought, and various environmental pollution with excessive heavy metals are thought as one of the main reasons that influence the growth and development of crops [ 112 , 113 ] (Table 1 ). The augmented adaptation of crops needs a many-sided approach, e.g., regulation of hormones, activation of plant enzymatic system, expression of stress genes, avoidance of water deficit stress, and control of the heavy metal translocation and uptake [ 114 , 115 ]. Advances in NMs can raise the production of crops in the present opposing environment [ 59 , 116 ].…”