No abstract

No abstract

Agriculture is directly linked to human life, providing food for survival and health. It is threatened by a number of challenges, such as climate change, resource depletion, and abiotic stresses, including heavy metals (HMs), salinity, drought, etc. Various strategies have been employed to palliate the phytotoxic effects of these stressors from the soil–plant system. Nanotechnological approaches have emerged as a promising tool for increasing crop productivity and promoting sustainable agriculture. Interestingly, the seed nano-priming approach has shown potential against all of the above-mentioned abiotic stress factors and has improved crop productivity. The application of nanoparticles (NPs) via seed priming is an innovative and cost-effective approach that improves seed germination and subsequent plant growth by activating plant physiological processes and providing tolerance against various stresses. The seed priming with NPs induces electron exchange and increases surface reaction capabilities related to plant cell and tissue components. This review aims to provide an overview of recent advances and research findings on seed nano-priming and the possible mechanism of plant stress-tolerance augmentation against various stresses. Furthermore, we also shed light on gaps in studies conducted in previous years, which will open new avenues for future research.

In rapeseed, the oil content of the seed not only supplies energy for seed germination and seedling development but also provides essential dietary nutrients for humans and livestock. Recent studies have revealed that many transcription factors (TFs) regulate the accumulation of fatty acids (FAs) during seed development. WRKY6, a WRKY6 family TF, was reported to serve a function in the plant senescence processes, pathogen defense mechanisms and abiotic stress responses. However, the precise role of WRKY6 in influencing FA accumulation in seeds is still unknown. In this study, we demonstrate that WRKY6 has a high expression level in developing seeds and plays an essential role in regulating the accumulation of FAs in developing seeds of Arabidopsis. Mutation of WRKY6 resulted in significant increase in seed size, accompanied by an increase in FA content and changes in FA composition. Ultrastructure analyses showed that the absence of WRKY6 resulted in more and higher percentage of oil body in the cell of mature seeds. Quantitative real‐time PCR analysis revealed changes in the expression of several genes related to photosynthesis and FA biosynthesis in wrky6 mutants at 10 or 16 days after pollination. These results reveal a novel function of WRKY6 influencing seed oil content and FAs compositions. This gene could be used as a promising gene resource to improve FA accumulation and seed yield in Brassica napus through genetic manipulation.

The growing use of metallic nanoparticles in industry has resulted in their accumulation in agricultural land, which poses a serious threat to the yield and quality of crops worldwide.

Metallic oxide nanoparticles (NPs) have received great importance due to their unique properties and valuable applications in various fields.

In recent decades, global climate change and heavy metal stress have severely affected plant growth and biomass, which has led to a serious threat to food safety and human health. Anthropogenic activities, the rapid pace of urbanization, and the use of modern agricultural technologies have further aggravated environmental conditions, resulting in limited crop growth and productivity. This review highlights the various adaptive transcriptomic responses of plants to tolerate detrimental environmental conditions, such as drought, salinity, and heavy metal contamination. These stresses hinder plant growth and development by disrupting their physiological and biochemical processes by inducing oxidative stress, nutritional imbalance, and osmotic disturbance, and by deteriorating their photosynthetic machinery. Plants have developed different strategies to safeguard themselves against the toxic effects of these environmental stresses. They stimulate their secondary messenger to activate cell signaling, and they trigger other numerous transcriptomic responses associated with plant defense mechanisms. Therefore, the recent advances in biological sciences, such as transcriptomics, metabolomics, and proteomics, have assisted our understanding of the stress-tolerant strategies adopted by plants, which could be further utilized to breed tolerant species. This review summarizes the stress-tolerant strategies of crops by covering the role of transcriptional factors in plants.

No abstract