Role of nanomaterials in plants under challenging environments

The application of nanostructured materials, designed for sustainable crop production, reduces nutrient losses, suppresses disease and enhances the yields. Nanomaterials (NMs), with a particle size less than 100 nm, influence key life events of the plants that include seed germination, seedling vigor, root initiation, growth and photosynthesis to flowering. Additionally, NMs have been implicated in the protection of plants against oxidative stress as they mimic the role of antioxidative enzymes such as superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT) and peroxidase (POX). However, besides their beneficial effects on plants, applications of NMs have been proved to be phytotoxic too as they enhance the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS). The elevated level of ROS may damage the cellular membranes, proteins and nucleic acids. Therefore, in such a conflicting and ambiguous nature of NMs in plants, it is necessary to decipher the mechanism of cellular, biochemical and molecular protection render by NMs under stressful environmental conditions. This review systematically summarizes the role of NMs in plants under abiotic stresses such as drought, salt, temperature, metal, UV-B radiation and flooding. Furthermore, suitable strategies adopted by plants in presence of NMs under challenging environments are also being presented. •This review presents recent advances in NMs-plants interaction under abiotic stress.•NMs possess the capacity to penetrate targeted cellular locations.•NMs protect plants against various abiotic stresses and also cause phytotoxicity.•Plants’ defense system and stress-related gene expression are elevated by NMs.•NMs are hypothesized to play a role in stress-signal transduction.