Seed Nanopriming to Mitigate Abiotic Stresses in Plants

Abstract

Abiotic stresses affect crop plants extensively during their life span, reducing productivity and threatening global food security. Stress conditions can result in failures of seed germination, uniformity, crop yield, cellular redox homeostasis, and the over-accumulation of reactive oxygen species. Seed nanopriming, pre-treating seeds with nanoparticles, is one way to overcome these limitations and successfully increase the tolerance of plants to future biotic and abiotic stress conditions. Nanopriming can play a significant role through the induction of several metabolic and physiological methods to better tolerate abiotic stresses. However, further research is needed to determine whether nanoparticles are stress promoters or stress inhibitors in plant systems. Here, we review how nanoparticle agents-based seed priming has the capacity to mitigate abiotic stresses.