Salinity is one of the major causes of abiotic stress that leads to a reduction in crop yield. One strategy to alleviate and improve crop yield is to use halophytes. These types of plants naturally produce bioactive secondary metabolites, proteins, carbohydrates, and biopolymers that are involved in specialized physiological adaptation mechanisms to alleviate soil salinity. These traits could be leveraged and, in turn, be the focus of future breeding programs aimed to improve salinity resistance in traditional crops. Recently, the field of nanotechnology has gained the attention of researchers involved in agricultural science and associated disciplines. However, information on salinity tolerance mechanisms of halophytes, based on nanoparticles in agricultural crop plants, is limited. Recently, the use of selected halophytic-based nanoparticles has shown to improve crop performance by enhancing the plants' ion flux, improving water efficiency, root hydraulic movement in the favor of plant photosynthesis, the production of proteins involved in oxidation-reduction reactions, reactive oxygen species (ROS) detoxification, and hormonal signaling pathways under stress. Therefore, the aim of this review is to highlight the application of halophytic nanoparticles in alleviating salt stress in plants by understanding the mechanisms of plant growth, water relation, ion flux, photosynthesis, and the antioxidant defense system. This review also addresses uncertainties, ecotoxicological concerns, and associated drawbacks of nanoparticles on the environment. Future research perspectives with respect to the sustainable usage of nanoparticles in saline agriculture have also been presented.
Keywords: Abiotic stress; Biofertilizer; Metabolites; Reactive oxygen species; Soil salinity; Toxicity.
© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.