Effect of metal and metal oxide nanoparticles on growth and physiology of globally important food crops: A critical review.
The concentrations of engineered metal and metal oxide nanoparticles (NPs) have increased in the environment due to increasing demand of NPs based products. This is causing a major concern for sustainable agriculture. This review presents the effects of NPs on agricultural crops at biochemical, physiological and molecular levels. Numerous studies showed that metal and metal oxide NPs affected the growth, yield and quality of important agricultural crops. The NPs altered mineral nutrition, photosynthesis and caused oxidative stress and induced genotoxicity in crops. The activities of antioxidant enzymes increased at low NPs toxicity while decreased at higher NPs toxicity in crops. Due to exposure of crop plants to NPs, the concentration of NPs increased in different plant parts including fruits and grains which could transfer to the food chain and pose a threat to human health. In conclusion, most of the NPs have both positive and negative effects on crops at physiological, morphological, biochemical and molecular levels. The effects of NPs on crop plants vary greatly with plant species, growth stages, growth conditions, method, dose, and duration of NPs exposure along with other factors. Further research orientation is also discussed in this review article.
Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, Government College University, Allama, Iqbal Road, 38000 Faisalabad, Pakistan.
Muhammad
M
Rizwan
Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, Government College University, Allama, Iqbal Road, 38000 Faisalabad, Pakistan.
Shafaqat
S
Ali
Department of Soil Sciences, Faculty of Agricultural Sciences and Technology, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan, Pakistan. Electronic address: farooq.qayyum@bzu.edu.pk.
Muhammad Farooq
MF
Qayyum
Korea Biochar Research Centre and Department of Biological Environment, Kangwon National University, Chuncheon 200-701, Republic of Korea.
Yong Sik
YS
Ok
Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, Government College University, Allama, Iqbal Road, 38000 Faisalabad, Pakistan.
Muhammad
M
Adrees
Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, Government College University, Allama, Iqbal Road, 38000 Faisalabad, Pakistan.
Muhammad
M
Ibrahim
Institute of Soil and Environmental Sciences, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad 38040, Pakistan.
Muhammad
M
Zia-Ur-Rehman
Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Gujrat, Hafiz Hayat Campus, Gujrat, Pakistan.
Mujahid
M
Farid
Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, Government College University, Allama, Iqbal Road, 38000 Faisalabad, Pakistan.
Farhat
F
Abbas
D018556:Crops, Agricultural; D020387:Food Chain; D006801:Humans; D053768:Metal Nanoparticles / Q000633:toxicity; D012989:Soil Pollutants / Q000032:analysis* / Q000737:chemistry
D012989:Soil Pollutants
Crop plants; Genotoxicity; Metals toxicity; Plant biochemistry