Harnessing magnesium nanoparticles for enhanced crop growth and stress mitigation

Nanoparticles as catalysts of change: toward third-generation seed technology and stress-resilient crops

Sustainable Production of Solanaceous Vegetable Crops Under Climate Change: The Role of Nanoparticles in Enhancing Abiotic Stress Adaptation

Climate change represents a major global challenge that threatens agricultural productivity, ecosystem stability, and food security by intensifying abiotic stresses such as drought, salinity, and extreme temperatures. Solanaceous crops, which are economically and nutritionally important worldwide, are highly sensitive to these stresses, leading to oxidative damage, impaired photosynthesis, and reduced yield and quality. Nanotechnology has emerged as a promising approach to mitigate these adverse effects. Due to their unique physicochemical properties, nanoparticles (NPs) enhance nutrient uptake, improve water-use efficiency, and regulate plant metabolic processes. They also activate antioxidant defense systems, reduce reactive oxygen species (ROS), and improve the delivery efficiency of growth regulators and bioactive compounds. This review synthesizes recent literature on abiotic stress responses in solanaceous crops and evaluates the role of nanoparticles as mitigation strategies, focusing on physiological, biochemical, and molecular mechanisms. The scope includes drought, salinity, and temperature stresses, as well as nano-enabled applications such as nano-carriers and nano-sensors. Overall, nanoparticle applications improve plant tolerance by enhancing antioxidant activity, regulating stress-responsive pathways, and improving resource-use efficiency, thereby contributing to increased crop productivity under climate change conditions. However, challenges related to nanoparticle toxicity and environmental risks remain, emphasizing the need for optimized and safe application strategies. These findings highlight the potential of nanotechnology as a sustainable tool to enhance the resilience and productivity of solanaceous crops under changing climatic conditions. This review highlights that nanoparticles can enhance abiotic stress tolerance in solanaceous crops by improving antioxidant activity, photosynthesis, nutrient uptake, and water-use efficiency under adverse environmental conditions. Overall, nanotechnology represents a promising strategy for sustainable crop production under climate change, although further studies are needed to ensure its environmental safety and long-term applicability. This review provides a comprehensive overview of abiotic stress effects on solanaceous crops and highlights the role of nanoparticles as a sustainable tool to enhance plant tolerance, productivity, and resilience under climate change conditions.

Microbe-mediated nanotechnology for heavy metal detoxification and crop resilience: mechanisms, advances, and future prospects

The recent review highlights a comprehensive overview of microbial NPs synthesis, with a particular focus on the mechanisms underlying NPs formation, NPs-HMs interactions, and their role in improving crop resilience.

Nanotechnology and Plant-Microbe Interactions: Enhancing Symbiotic Relationships for Crop Resilience.

Current evidence remains insufficient to support widespread field application without long-term ecological monitoring, standardized assessment protocols, and evaluation of economic feasibility for smallholder farming systems.

Vitamin–Metal Synergy: Folic-Acid-Based Carbon Nanoassemblies for Optimized Plant Growth

Developing sustainable strategies to enhance crop yields is critical to meeting global food demands under intensifying climate stress. This study investigates the synthesis and application of folic-acid-based carbon nanoassemblies (FA-CNAs) that integrate magnesium (Mg) or manganese (Mn) as precision nanobionic tools for agricultural enhancement. The produced materials were selected for photosynthetic enhancement due to their biofortification potential and their ability to expand the usable solar spectrum by harvesting underutilized UV-A wavelengths. In greenhouse trials with Raphanus sativus, FA-CNA-Mg treatment achieved significant biostimulation, resulting in a 13% increase in foliar dry mass, a 19% boost in chlorophyll concentration, and a 22% improvement in ascorbic acid content. Conversely, while FA-CNA-Mn facilitated exceptional systemic translocation (up to a 306% increase in root Mn concentration), it displayed inhibitions in the rate of the Hill reaction by 36%. Untargeted metabolomics revealed that the superior performance of FA-CNA-Mg is underpinned by systemic metabolic reprogramming, characterized by the upregulation of vitamin B5 and an accelerated flux of essential amino acids and nitrogen-rich ureides. These results highlight the potential of vitamin–metal synergy for developing high-efficiency, sustainable alternatives to conventional fertilizers that optimize both photosynthetic integrity and harvestable yield.

A Review of Carbon Nanotubes’ Effects on Plant Growth and Their Environmental Impact

Against the backdrop of global warming and rapid population growth, issues such as limited arable land and soil degradation and water pollution caused by the overuse of traditional chemical fertilizers are becoming increasingly severe. Developing new agricultural technologies to ensure food security has become a global consensus. Carbon nanotubes (CNTs), with their unique physicochemical properties—including high specific surface area, excellent conductivity, and environmental friendliness—offer innovative solutions to these challenges and serve as key materials for promoting sustainable agricultural development. Research indicates that CNTs can optimize plant growth in multiple dimensions, including promoting water transport and nutrient absorption, as well as regulating endogenous plant hormones and antioxidant systems. These beneficial effects can also significantly enhance crop resilience under adverse conditions such as drought and salinity. When faced with heavy metal or pesticide residue contamination, CNTs can alleviate stress by reducing the bioavailability of toxins. Furthermore, as novel carriers for fertilizers and pesticides, CNTs not only enable the slow release of active substances to enhance efficacy but also facilitate the construction of microsensors, supporting precision monitoring and virus control in smart agriculture. However, concerns remain regarding the ecological safety of CNTs. Their environmental degradation mechanisms are unclear, and they are prone to bioaccumulation; moreover, their effects on plants and soil microorganisms vary depending on type, concentration, and exposure duration. Compounding this complexity, CNTs may exhibit synergistic toxicity with environmental pollutants, and their long-term ecological risks urgently require assessment. This research focuses on the microscopic mechanisms by which CNTs promote the growth of major crops, their practical application efficacy, and their potential disruption of soil ecosystems. It aims to systematically evaluate the agricultural application potential of CNTs, providing a theoretical basis for maximizing their agronomic benefits while mitigating ecological risks, ultimately contributing to global food security and the green transformation of agriculture.