Pure biochemicals and nanomaterials as next generation biostimulants for sustainable agriculture under abiotic stress – recent advances and future scope

ABSTRACT

Sustainable agriculture faces major challenges under abiotic stress conditions owing to extensive application of chemical fertilizers which pollute water, soil and atmosphere. Biostimulants (BSs), comprising of naturally derived complex mixtures of uncharacterized biomolecules, pure biochemicals and nanomaterials, enhance nutrient use efficiency (NUE) and trigger crop’s natural defense mechanisms. While it is difficult to specify the metabolic effects of uncharacterized natural mixtures (seaweed extract, protein hydrolyzates, etc.), exogenous application of pure biochemicals and nanomaterials offers an edge as BSs since their physiological roles and mechanisms of action are decipherable. Foliar application or seed treatment of some amino acids, polyamines and biopolymers (chitosan, lipochitin oligosaccharides and thuricin 17) enable plants to overcome drought and salinity stress via activation of mechanisms for reactive oxygen species (ROS) scavenging, osmolyte regulation and chlorophyll accumulation. Interaction of nitric oxide (NO) with some vitamins and melatonin exhibits potential significance as BSs for mitigating stress by ROS scavenging and maintenance of intracellular ionic balance and membrane integrity. Near future is likely to see wide applications of nanoparticles (NPs) and nanomaterials (NMs) as BSs in view of their biphasic mode of action (bio-physical activation of membrane receptors followed by gradual release of BS into the plant cells).

KEYWORDS:

• Biostimulants
• abiotic stress
• nitric oxide
• vitamins
• melatonin

Acknowledgments

The corresponding author (SCB) acknowledges the opportunity he got to work as a Senior Consultant in the Ministry of Agriculture (Government of India), thereby gaining lot of exposure to prevailing issues and scope in the use of BSs in agriculture.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Author’s contributions

All authors contributed equally in the preparation of this manuscript.

Additional information

Funding

No funding is associated with the work featured in this article.