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Nanoparticles (range under 100 nm) prepared by different technology modes including physical, chemical, biological have many applications. Like in the same way silver nanoparticles are used for different beneficial actions like antimicrobial- antibacterial, antifungal and antiviral, anti-inflammatory, anticancer, water treatment, cosmetics, and in the textiles industry. As silver nanoparticles have shown wide application by different mechanisms against various pathophyisiological conditions. To maintain safety under their use, the study of the toxicity of silver nanoparticles has become more important. Health agencies like WHO, NIOSH, EPA, EFSAEU have issued guidelines for unrisky exposure limit of silver nanopartricles in drinking water, food and breathing. The main purpose of this article is to summarize genotoxicity, cytotoxicity, neurotoxicity, reproductive toxicity of silver nanoparticles in both

Conventional agriculture solely depends upon highly chemical compounds that have negatively ill-affected the health of every living being and the entire ecosystem. Thus, the smart delivery of desired components in a sustainable manner to crop plants is the primary need to maintain soil health in the upcoming years. The premature loss of growth-promoting ingredients and their extended degradation in the soil increases the demand for reliable novel techniques. In this regard, nanotechnology has offered to revolutionize the agrotechnological area that has the imminent potential over conventional agriculture and helps to reform resilient cropping systems withholding prominent food security for the ever-growing world population. Further, in-depth investigation on plant-nanoparticles interactions creates new avenues toward crop improvement via enhanced crop yield, disease resistance, and efficient nutrient utilization. The incorporation of nanomaterial with smart agrochemical activities and establishing a new framework relevant to enhance efficacy ultimately help to address the social acceptance, potential hazards, and management issues in the future. Here, we highlight the role of nanomaterial or nanocomposite as a sustainable as well stable alternative in crop protection and production. Additionally, the information on the controlled released system, role in interaction with soil and microbiome, the promising role of nanocomposite as nanopesticide, nanoherbicide, nanofertilizer, and their limitations in agrochemical activities are discussed in the present review.

Gradual deterioration in water resources and unpredictable distribution pattern of annual precipitation amount are major threats having drastic effects on wheat crop biology. Whole life cycle of plant, from seed germination to seed setting, is quite sensitive to water given them, a major recognizable factor influencing its survival. Here, we evaluated morpho-physiological traits of Elymus semicostatus (Nees ex Steud.) Melderis grown under three water regimes condition during the year 2017–18. Plants were grown at A, B and C conditions marked as 25, 50 and 100% respectively based on the water availability. The pubescence on different plant parts, spike consistency, plant height, leaf area, chlorophyll content, relative water content, days to flowering, tiller number and thousand grain weight parameters were used to evaluate the effect of drought or water deficit conditions on plants. Variation with germplasm plasticity traits i:e:spike length, leaf area, grain weight, tiller number and positively correlated with days to flowering based on stress tolerance (r = .786, r = .525,r = .895 and r = .890 respectively). Overall, E.semicostatus accessions were identified as efficent donar of drought tolerance but NBPAU 13, NBPAU14, NBPAU18 and NBPAU28 showed much potential in drought tolerance. In concert with collection and in-situ conservation of wheat wild relatives, elaborative taxonomic keys, characterization and evaluation of these accessions, address the hybridization barriers for introgression of gene flow from wild germplasm is prioritized. The selection from broad set of useful morpho-physiological traits in Elymus semicostatus may explain the drought tolerance strategies in reference to phenotyping may have accelerated wheat breeding programs.

Climate change is causing a huge loss in biodiversity throughout the globe and the rate has accelerated in recent years. Plant diversity of temperate regions has continuously suffered due to this. The importance of conservation of wild relatives/species of staple crop such as Elymus, Leymus, Thinopyrum, Lolium either in situ or ex situ is essential to sustain these resources for future use due to their ability to withstand in a stressful environment. Thus plant researchers are always in a quest to explore novel species to enhance the genetic diversity of wild crop relatives to improve the resilience of staple crops to a wide range of stress conditions. Keeping these viewpoints in mind, in 2016–2018, we have explored the Lahaul valley, a cold arid region of District Lahaul and Spiti, Himachal Pradesh. A total of 230 accessions of four different species belonging to genus Elymus viz-E. semicostatus (Nees ex steud.) Meld., E. repens Gould, E. dahuricus Turrcz Ex Griseb. and E. longiaristatus (Boiss.) Tzvelev subsp. Canaliculatus (Nevski) Tzvelev belonging to the family Poaceae, tribe Triticeae were taken into consideration. Wide-range of variability was observed at an inter-and intraspecific level among these species. The variations in morphological characters at different ecological amplitudes were recorded. The presence of variation in abiotic stress tolerance traits such as spike pigmentation, low seed shattering, dense pubescence, waxiness was observed. Forty traits were recorded during field evaluation to ease wheat breeders and researchers to identify germplasm during the collection at an in situ level. The population of these four species had a variation for qualitative and quantitative traits at different ecological regimes at their native habitat suggesting their adaptability to a particular niche. Pre-breeding on these germplasm resources could be initiated for introgression novel alleles in wheat to mitigate environmental constraints posed by changing climate.

MicroRNAs are small, ubiquitous, non-protein-coding essential endogenous task masters of RNA interference (RNAi). These are more or less 22 nucleotide-long RNAs that repress gene expression post transcriptionally by binding to the 3′ untranslated region of target mRNAs. MicroRNAs are self-regulating transcription units that balancing the physiological processes by maintaining the interaction between various factors. These conserved evolutionary units target the specific mRNAs to mediate post-transcriptional regulation by mean of translational repression changes. The paper highlights the involvement of miRNA biogenesis, mechanism and developmental aspects (such as regulating the flower development, root-shoot development) nutrient uptake, abiotic and biotic stress tolerance. With the introduction of molecular tools, the function of miRNAs will definitely have regarded as multidisciplinary role. Thus, an attempt is made to understand the role of miRNAs in coordinating the regulatory pathways of the plant life cycle.

Plants establish tiny, cellular signaling pathways playing a unique coordination role in growth and development. Plasmodesmata are playing a central role in the formation of domain, which regulates the cellular network and trafficking of molecules required to create gradient for physiological and developmental processes. The plasmodesmal trafficking provides a novel tool for studying the informational molecules to control the processes such as embryo development, root nodule formation, flower development and stomata growth and differentiation, and other cellular differentiation. Finally, comprehensive role of plasmodesmata as nano bridges for communication in signaling within plant tissue is detailed. This review paper highlights the developmental processes that are tightly coordinated by plasmodesmata and the role of molecular signals that explains how these are altered.

Reactive oxygen species (ROS) are widely generated in various redox reactions in plants. In earlier studies, ROS were considered toxic byproducts of aerobic metabolism. In recent years, it has become clear that ROS act as plant signaling molecules that participate in various processes such as growth and development. Several studies have elucidated the roles of ROS from seed germination to senescence. However, there is much to discover about the diverse roles of ROS as signaling molecules and their mechanisms of sensing and response. ROS may provide possible benefits to plant physiological processes by supporting cellular proliferation in cells that maintain basal levels prior to oxidative effects. Although ROS are largely perceived as either negative by-products of aerobic metabolism or makers for plant stress, elucidating the range of functions that ROS play in growth and development still require attention. Keywords: Oxidative signaling, Developmental processes, Plant, ROS, Functional range

Sugars, the chemically bound form of energy, are formed by the absorption of photosynthetically active radiation and fixation in plants. During evolution, plants availed the sugar molecules as a resource, balancing molecule, and signaling molecule. The multifaceted role of sugar molecules in response to environmental stimuli makes it the central coordinator required for growth, survival, and continuity. During the course of evolution, the molecular networks have become complex to adapt or acclimate to the changing environment. Sugar molecules are sensed both intra and extracellularly by their specific sensors. The signal is transmitted by a signaling loop that involves various downstream signaling molecules, transcriptional factors and, most pertinent, the sensors TOR and SnRK1. In this review, the focus has been retained on the significance of the sugar sensors during signaling and induced modules to regulate plant growth, development, biotic and abiotic stress. It is interesting to visualize the sugar molecule as a signaling unit and not only a nutrient. Complete information on the downstream components of sugar signaling will open the gates for improving the qualitative and quantitative elements of crop plants.

Background The era of first green revolution brought about by the application of chemical fertilizers surely led to the explosion of food grains, but left behind the notable problem of salinity. Continuous application of these fertilizers coupled with fertilizer-responsive crops make the country self-reliant, but continuous deposition of these led to altered the water potential and thus negatively affecting the proper plant functioning from germination to seed setting. Main body Increased concentration of anion and cations and their accumulation and distribution cause cellular toxicity and ionic imbalance. Plants respond to salinity stress by any one of two mechanisms, viz., escape or tolerate, by either limiting their entry via root system or controlling their distribution and storage. However, the understanding of tolerance mechanism at the physiological, biochemical, and molecular levels will provide an insight for the identification of related genes and their introgression to make the crop more resilient against salinity stress. Short conclusion Novel emerging approaches of plant breeding and biotechnologies such as genome-wide association studies, mutational breeding, marker-assisted breeding, double haploid production, hyperspectral imaging, and CRISPR/Cas serve as engineering tools for dissecting the in-depth physiological mechanisms. These techniques have well-established implications to understand plants’ adaptions to develop more tolerant varieties and lower the energy expenditure in response to stress and, constitutively fulfill the void that would have led to growth resistance and yield penalty.

Salinity is one of the most important constraints for global cereal production, and breeding for salinity tolerance is a challenge. The limited gene pools, merged information regarding osmotic stress/tissue tolerance mechanism(s) including the accumulation of Na+ , over-stressed on the Na+ exclusion mechanism, and inadequate suitable screening methods further weaken the progress. In the present study, an attempt was made to evaluate the salt tolerance in Triticum aestivum lines using the membership function value (MFV) of certain traits viz., the root and shoot length (RL & SL), shoot and root fresh weight (SFW & RFW), shoot and root dry weight (SDW & RDW) and germination percentage (GP). This study screened 314 wheat lines (278 linked top cross population [LTPs] and 36 normal wheat cultivars) under lab conditions to evaluate their salt tolerance. A positive, and the highest, correlation coefficient was recorded between salt tolerance index (STI) of SL and the STI of RL.0.11 highly salt tolerant (HST), 59 salt tolerant (ST), 100 moderately salt tolerant (MST), 137 salt sensitive (SS), and seven highly salt sensitive (HSS) were observed with a distance of 2.2 between each category. The R-square value was maximum (0.836) between the STI of SFW and the mean MFV, which can be used as the most reliable trait for the salinity tolerance in T. aestivum at the germination phase. Wheat tolerant lines had higher tolerance to salt stress in comparison with the used normal wheat cultivars were detected at the seedling stage.

Plant diseases caused by pathogenic entities pose severe issues to global food security. Effective sensory applications and tools for the effective determination of plant diseases become crucial to the assurance of food supply and agricultural sustainability. Antibody-mediated molecular assays and nucleic acid are gold-standard approaches for plant disease diagnosis, but the evaluating methodologies are liable, complex, and laborious. With the rise in global food demand, escalating the food production in threats of diverse pathogen ranges, and climate change is a major challenge. Engineered nanoparticles (NPs) have been inserted into conventional laboratory sequence technologies or molecular assays that provide a remarkable increment in selectivity and sensitivity. In the present scenario, they are useful in plant disease management as well as in plant health monitoring. The use of NPs could sustainably mitigate numerous food security issues and or threats in disease management by decreasing the risk of chemical inputs and alleviating supra detection of pathogens. Overall, this review paper discusses the role of NPs in plant diseases management, available commercial products. Additionally, the future directions and their regulatory laws in the usage of the nano-diagnostic approach for plant health monitoring have been explained.

Since ancient times, medicinal plants have shown immense potential in terms of their immune regulatory functions against viruses, bacteria, fungi, cancer, and inflammation. The belief in the system of folk medicinal practitioners has been passed on from one generation to another generation for many centuries due to their realistic consideration, constant experimentation, and regular testing. In general, the conventional system employs Emblica officinalis, Asparagus racemosa, Tinospora cordifolia, Inula racemosa, Withania somnifera, and different Terminalia species, along with other plants for making tonics and formulations. Currently, conventional medicinal plants are attracting special interest as ideal candidates for one of the major needs of mankind in the present century, i.e., immunity boosters. Furthermore, they have garnered much attention in clinical research as they offer cost-effective solutions for treating major health issues with fewer side effects than those of the allopathic global drug trade. As a result, the use of numerous Rasayana formulations has been boosted to the next level in various geographical areas covering India, China, Japan, Europe, USA, and Africa, and their consumption has reached a new level during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, the current chapter highlights the potential of conventional medicinal plants including their families, their major bioactive molecules, and their associated therapeutic roles.

γ-Aminobutyric acid (GABA), a four-carbon nonprotein amino acid, is abundant in both eukaryotic and prokaryotic organisms. In very recent years, the flexible roles of GABA have emerged in order to mitigate abiotic stress conditions (hypoxia, heat, chilling stress, and salinity) by mediating the physiological, biochemical, and molecular pathways. It indirectly affects plant growth phases and increases the concentration of stress tolerance-related accumulates in response to stresses. The exogenous applications of GABA are used to improve plant stress responses in terms of elevating the efficiency of photosynthetic system’s and regulation of stress-related genes encoding for osmotin, dehydrins, heat-shock protein, and leaf embryogenesis protein associated with conditions. In a response, it triggers a similar effect of intrinsic signaling molecules and initiates transcriptional factors that offer the chances to mediate the overall vigor of plants. Various recent studies have gained much attention on the effective involvement of GABA treatment on stomatal conductance, photosynthetic rate, osmolyte metabolism, antioxidant enzymes, and protection of chloroplastic structure during the prolonged period of drought and heat stress. Therefore, this current chapter aims to summarize the information on the multifunctional contribution of GABA and share its metabolic and biological function in variable conditions. Moreover, the information on flexibility in stress adaptation and its role in maintaining stress-associated biological pathways are also explained.

Globally escalating food demand and unpredictable global warming have threatened the humanity in jeopardy. Excessive use of commercial pesticides and chemical fertilizers is providing ease of handling, but their toxic nondegradable residues are known to exert negative impacts on the plants, microbes, and even soil health. The unpredictable climate change leads to enhanced incidence of abiotic and biotic stresses in plants. Several integral approaches of fungi, microbes, plant, and their derived metabolites are used to encounter the stresses for effective crop management. The secondary metabolites are proving their immense potential and have time and again being proven to cope up the unavoidable and unpredictable changes due to adverse environmental conditions. The chapter highlights the role of both microbial and plant-based flavonoids and carotenoids as key agents for managing biotic and abiotic stress tolerance in crop plants. Moreover, such feasible and efficient biological application using plant-based composition helps to mitigate the challenges and open new gates of sustainable agriculture.

Machine learning models based on satellite data have been actively researched to serve as a proxy for the prediction of socio-economic development indicators. Such models have however rarely been tested for transferability over time, i.e. whether models learned on data for a certain year are able to make accurate predictions on data for another year. Using a dataset from the Indian census at two time points, for the years 2001 and 2011, we evaluate the temporal transferability of a simple machine learning model at sub-national scales of districts and propose a generic method to improve its performance. This method can be especially relevant when training datasets are small to train a robust prediction model. Then, we go further to build an aggregate development index at the district-level, on the lines of the Human Development Index (HDI) and demonstrate high accuracy in predicting the index based on satellite data for different years. This can be used to build applications to guide data-driven policy making at fine spatial and temporal scales, without the need to conduct frequent expensive censuses and surveys on the ground.

Climate change has been regarded as an indication of biodiversity loss over the past three decades, and it has posed a threat to agriculture around the world. Under this situation, over-exploitation and selection for specific features have resulted in a reduction in genetic diversity, particularly in cultivated cereals. In the primary and secondary gene pools of wheat, no new insights or gene possibilities have been left, as expected. In this approach, plant breeders may be able to generate wheat climate-resilient cultivars by utilizing the diversity of essential genes found in wheat grasses from the tertiary gene pool. The major indicator for sourcing is the adaptation of grasses. Grasses acclimatization is the primary indication for sources of novel abiotic tolerance genes which help them to withstand tropical to temperate environments. Wild grasses hold a significant position in ploidy level and also can maintain flexibility which gives the insight to widen the genomic architecture of cultivated wheat cultivars. In the present article, the information on domestication of wheat, gene pool, and involvement of wheat wild relatives has been summarised. Additionally, the paper highlights the negative effect of wild introgression during successful alien trait transfer.