Graphene-based nanomaterials for plant stress resilience and nutrition: a systematic review
Abstract Global food security faces escalating threats from biotic and abiotic stresses, driving the urgent need for innovative strategies to enhance plant resilience in agricultural systems. Graphene-based nanomaterials (GNMs) have emerged as a promising toolkit for sustainable agriculture due to their unique physicochemical properties. This systematic review comprehensively synthesizes and evaluates the current evidence from 23 studies on the role of GNMs in mitigating environmental stresses in plants. The findings demonstrate that GNMs, particularly functionalized derivatives like graphene oxide and graphene quantum dots, can significantly enhance plant tolerance to abiotic stresses such as salinity, drought, and heavy metal toxicity. The mechanisms primarily involve augmenting the antioxidant defense system, protecting photosynthetic machinery, and modulating water and ion homeostasis. A limited but promising body of evidence also indicates that GNMs can induce systemic resistance against fungal pathogens. However, the effects are critically dependent on a triad of factors including nanomaterial type, application concentration, and the specific plant-stress context, with higher doses often inducing phytotoxicity. A major translational gap is identified, as the current research is predominantly confined to controlled environments. Therefore, while GNMs hold significant potential for climate-resilient agriculture, their safe and effective application necessitates meticulous dose optimization and a decisive shift toward long-term field validation studies and multi-location trials to account for geographic variability in environmental conditions, which is essential for regulatory approval.