ABSTRACT
Recently, climate change and global warming have increased the incidence of abiotic and biotic stresses which have seriously threatened the global food production systems and farmers’ earnings. Different abiotic stresses (salinity, drought, heat, chilling, heavy metals and nutrient imbalances) are inflicting significant yield losses to field crops globally, thereby leading to food insecurity issues. Besides, biotic stresses caused by a variety of insect-pests and weeds have multiplied in severity which restricts crop growth and reduces the economic yield of food crops. Thus, the intensity of the challenge requisites developing more immediate and viable approaches to mitigate these stresses and enhance crop production in the short term. In the quest to improve plants’ tolerance against stresses, the use of nanoparticles has emerged as a promising technique, which might deliver nutrients, overcome plant diseases and pathogens, and sense and monitor trace elements present in the soil. However, there is an urgent need to increase our understanding of the underlying mechanisms of nanoparticles that assist plants to cope with abiotic stresses devising more effective long-term strategies against these stresses. Therefore, this work provides an update on the responses (physiological, biochemical and molecular) of crop plants to nanoparticles under stressful environments. The ultimate aim is to provide a concerted and up-to-date literature synthesis to the researchers from different disciplines (plant science, plant protection, agronomy, soil and environmental science along with nanoscience) regarding the deleterious impacts of stressful environments on crop plants and the potential of nanotechnology as a future remedy against biotic and abiotic stresses.
