Applications of nanoparticles for mitigating salinity and drought stress in plants: an overview on the physiological, biochemical and molecular genetic aspects

Human activities all over the world cause many changes in the environment. These changes resulted in more complicated challenges facing all living things on earth. Among these challenges are abiotic stresses, particularly salinity and drought, which contribute to the huge crops yield loss around the world, thereby leading to food insecurity issues. Plants combat these adverse abiotic stress impacts via evolving a variety of physiological, biochemical and molecular mechanisms. Tremendous promising techniques are being used to enhance plant abiotic stress tolerance, including the applications of nanoparticles, which are thought to enhance plant performance under stress conditions. Nanoparticles are being used to deliver nutrients to plants, overcome plant diseases and pathogens and to sense and monitor trace elements present in soil. In this review, a glimpse of how nanoparticles could mitigate the negative impacts of salinity or drought stress on plants at the physiological, biochemical and molecular levels is elucidated and discussed. Understanding the underlying mechanisms of nanoparticles in abiotic stress tolerance will open the doors for further improvements in the yield, production and quality of main crops facing the changing environmental challenges.