Biogenic nanoparticles and generation of abiotic stress-resilient plants: A new approach for sustainable agriculture

Abstract

Agricultural crop production is getting a significant setback due to global warming and climate change in the modern era. These two factors have significantly induced the severity of abiotic stresses such as drought, salinity, extreme temperature and heavy metal toxicity. Upon being exposed to harsh environmental conditions, cytotoxic metabolites such as reactive oxygen species are generated which in turn disturb the homeostatic balance of cells along with inciting membrane damage. In order to overcome the negative effects of abiotic stresses, plant and agrarian scientific reports have shown significant progresses in promoting the efficient and eco-friendly approaches for the synthesis of plant- and microorganism-based synthesis of nanoparticles. Owing to their nanoscale size, nanoparticles possess a large surface/volume ratio that significantly alters their property and characteristic as compared to that of their normal counterparts. Nanoparticles can be physically, chemically and biologically synthesised. While physical and chemical methods have been successfully applied for the generation of nanoparticles of high purity and desired size, these processes are costly and require toxic chemicals. Thus, in the modern era, several investigators have focused their interest on biological methods of nanoparticle synthesis, since such methods are fast, cost effective and eco-friendly. In this review, we attempt to deliver information about plant- and microorganism-mediated synthesis of nanoparticles, based on recent scientific works. We also demonstrate the significance of these nanoparticles in the mitigation of negative impact of abiotic stresses on crop plants which might come handy in near future to the agricultural community.