Nano-enabled stress-smart agriculture: Can nanotechnology deliver drought and salinity-smart crops?

Abstract

Salinity and drought stress substantially decrease crop yield and superiority, directly threatening the food supply needed to meet the rising food needs of the growing total population. Nanotechnology is a step towards improving agricultural output and stress tolerance by improving the efficacy of inputs in agriculture via targeted delivery, controlled release, and enhanced solubility and adhesion while also reducing significant damage. The direct application of nanoparticles (NPs)/nanomaterials can boost the performance and effectiveness of physio-biochemical and molecular mechanisms in plants under stress conditions, leading to advanced stress tolerance. Therefore, we presented the effects and plant responses to stress conditions, and also explored the potential of nanomaterials for improving agricultural systems, and discussed the advantages of applying NPs at various developmental stages to alleviate the negative effects of salinity and drought stress. Moreover, we feature the recent innovations in state-of-the-art nanobiotechnology, specifically NP-mediated genome editing via CRISPR/Cas system, to develop stress-smart crops. However, further investigations are needed to unravel the role of nanobiotechnology in addressing climate change challenges in modern agricultural systems. We propose that combining nanobiotechnology, genome editing and speed breeding techniques could enable the designing of climate-smart cultivars (particularly bred or genetically modified plant varieties) to meet the food security needs of the rising world population.