Nano-Priming Techniques for Plant Physio-Biochemistry and Stress Tolerance.

Abiotic and biotic stresses hamper our agricultural productivity by reducing crop growth, leading to food crises all over the globe. At present, the main objective of environmentalists is to ensure food safety by improving crop production in stressful environment. To achieve this goal, nanotechnology is a promising tool to sustainably promote food production. Seed nano-priming has emerged as a successful method to activate not only seed germination and seedling establishment but also the growth of the plant. Here we are focusing on some important benefits of seed nano-priming, like rapid germination, better plant growth, and higher yield. Furthermore, an attempt has been made to explain seed priming technology, mechanism of seed germination along with molecular, biochemical, and physiological changes on nano-priming. The data presented in this review prove that nano-priming can mitigate abiotic and biotic stresses and provide an option to raise a resilient crop. This review has also highlighted the challenges and limitations in using seed nano-priming for sustainable agriculture. We have also discussed here future possibility of usage of endophytes due to their enormous benefits to host and non-host plants, as well in seed germination and in abiotic stress tolerance via seed priming, with different innovative seed coating techniques, which could be used as potential technology in advancing dynamic and sustainable agriculture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]