Nanomaterials Coupled with MicroRNAs for Alleviating Plant Stress: a New Opening Towards Sustainable Agriculture

Overview

Journal Physiol Mol Biol Plants

Specialty Biology

Date 2022 May 20

PMID 35592477

Authors

Temesgen Assefa Gelaw

Neeti Sanan-Mishra

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Plant growth and development is influenced by their continuous interaction with the environment. Their cellular machinery is geared to make rapid changes for adjusting the morphology and physiology to withstand the stressful changes in their surroundings. The present scenario of climate change has however intensified the occurrence and duration of stress and this is getting reflected in terms of yield loss. A number of breeding and molecular strategies are being adopted to enhance the performance of plants under abiotic stress conditions. In this context, the use of nanomaterials is gaining momentum. Nanotechnology is a versatile field and its application has been demonstrated in almost all the existing fields of science. In the agriculture sector, the use of nanoparticles is still limited, even though it has been found to increase germination and growth, enhance physiological and biochemical activities and impact gene expression. In this review, we have summarized the use and role of nanomaterial and small non-coding RNAs in crop improvement while highlighting the potential of nanomaterial assisted eco-friendly delivery of small non-coding RNAs as an innovative strategy for mitigating the effect of abiotic stress.

Citing Articles

Promising Biotechnological Applications of the Artificial Derivatives Designed and Constructed from Plant microRNA Genes.

Erokhina T, Ryabukhina E, Lyapina I, Ryazantsev D, Zavriev S, Morozov S Plants (Basel). 2025; 14(3).

PMID: 39942887 PMC: 11819897. DOI: 10.3390/plants14030325.

Exogenous dsRNA triggers sequence-specific RNAi and fungal stress responses to control Magnaporthe oryzae in Brachypodium distachyon.

Zheng Y, Moorlach B, Jakobs-Schonwandt D, Patel A, Pastacaldi C, Jacob S Commun Biol. 2025; 8(1):121.

PMID: 39863769 PMC: 11762700. DOI: 10.1038/s42003-025-07554-6.

Nano-Restoration for Sustaining Soil Fertility: A Pictorial and Diagrammatic Review Article.

El-Ramady H, Brevik E, Fawzy Z, Elsakhawy T, Omara A, Amer M Plants (Basel). 2022; 11(18).

PMID: 36145792 PMC: 9504293. DOI: 10.3390/plants11182392.

References

Xia T, Kovochich M, Liong M, Meng H, Kabehie S, George S . Polyethyleneimine coating enhances the cellular uptake of mesoporous silica nanoparticles and allows safe delivery of siRNA and DNA constructs. ACS Nano. 2009; 3(10):3273-86. PMC: 3900639. DOI: 10.1021/nn900918w. View

Yang T, Wang Y, Teotia S, Wang Z, Shi C, Sun H . The interaction between miR160 and miR165/166 in the control of leaf development and drought tolerance in Arabidopsis. Sci Rep. 2019; 9(1):2832. PMC: 6391385. DOI: 10.1038/s41598-019-39397-7. View

Eichert T, Goldbach H . Equivalent pore radii of hydrophilic foliar uptake routes in stomatous and astomatous leaf surfaces--further evidence for a stomatal pathway. Physiol Plant. 2008; 132(4):491-502. DOI: 10.1111/j.1399-3054.2007.01023.x. View

Palmqvist N, Seisenbaeva G, Svedlindh P, Kessler V . Maghemite Nanoparticles Acts as Nanozymes, Improving Growth and Abiotic Stress Tolerance in Brassica napus. Nanoscale Res Lett. 2017; 12(1):631. PMC: 5736512. DOI: 10.1186/s11671-017-2404-2. View

Bidi H, Fallah H, Niknejad Y, Tari D . Iron oxide nanoparticles alleviate arsenic phytotoxicity in rice by improving iron uptake, oxidative stress tolerance and diminishing arsenic accumulation. Plant Physiol Biochem. 2021; 163:348-357. DOI: 10.1016/j.plaphy.2021.04.020. View

Djami-Tchatchou A, Sanan-Mishra N, Ntushelo K, Dubery I . Functional Roles of microRNAs in Agronomically Important Plants-Potential as Targets for Crop Improvement and Protection. Front Plant Sci. 2017; 8:378. PMC: 5360763. DOI: 10.3389/fpls.2017.00378. View

Ren W, Chang H, Teng Y . Sulfonated graphene-induced hormesis is mediated through oxidative stress in the roots of maize seedlings. Sci Total Environ. 2016; 572:926-934. DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2016.07.214. View

Gao P, Bai X, Yang L, Lv D, Pan X, Li Y . osa-MIR393: a salinity- and alkaline stress-related microRNA gene. Mol Biol Rep. 2010; 38(1):237-42. DOI: 10.1007/s11033-010-0100-8. View

Khan M, Mobin M, Abbas Z, Almutairi K, Siddiqui Z . Role of nanomaterials in plants under challenging environments. Plant Physiol Biochem. 2016; 110:194-209. DOI: 10.1016/j.plaphy.2016.05.038. View

10.

Siddiqui M, Al-Whaibi M . Role of nano-SiO2 in germination of tomato (Lycopersicum esculentum seeds Mill.). Saudi J Biol Sci. 2014; 21(1):13-7. PMC: 3937468. DOI: 10.1016/j.sjbs.2013.04.005. View

11.

Sunkar R, Kapoor A, Zhu J . Posttranscriptional induction of two Cu/Zn superoxide dismutase genes in Arabidopsis is mediated by downregulation of miR398 and important for oxidative stress tolerance. Plant Cell. 2006; 18(8):2051-65. PMC: 1533975. DOI: 10.1105/tpc.106.041673. View

12.

Srivastava S, Srivastava A, Suprasanna P, DSouza S . Identification and profiling of arsenic stress-induced microRNAs in Brassica juncea. J Exp Bot. 2012; 64(1):303-15. DOI: 10.1093/jxb/ers333. View

13.

Dapkekar A, Deshpande P, Oak M, Paknikar K, Rajwade J . Zinc use efficiency is enhanced in wheat through nanofertilization. Sci Rep. 2018; 8(1):6832. PMC: 5931615. DOI: 10.1038/s41598-018-25247-5. View

14.

Ng K, Motoda Y, Watanabe S, Othman A, Kigawa T, Kodama Y . Intracellular Delivery of Proteins via Fusion Peptides in Intact Plants. PLoS One. 2016; 11(4):e0154081. PMC: 4839658. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0154081. View

15.

Sonkar S, Roy M, Babar D, Sarkar S . Water soluble carbon nano-onions from wood wool as growth promoters for gram plants. Nanoscale. 2012; 4(24):7670-5. DOI: 10.1039/c2nr32408c. View

16.

Sadeghpour H, Khalvati B, Entezar-Almahdi E, Savadi N, Alhashemi S, Raoufi M . Double domain polyethylenimine-based nanoparticles for integrin receptor mediated delivery of plasmid DNA. Sci Rep. 2018; 8(1):6842. PMC: 5931586. DOI: 10.1038/s41598-018-25277-z. View

17.

Liu Q, Zhang H . Molecular identification and analysis of arsenite stress-responsive miRNAs in rice. J Agric Food Chem. 2012; 60(26):6524-36. DOI: 10.1021/jf300724t. View

18.

Goswami K, Mittal D, Gautam B, Sopory S, Sanan-Mishra N . Mapping the Salt Stress-Induced Changes in the Root miRNome in Pokkali Rice. Biomolecules. 2020; 10(4). PMC: 7226372. DOI: 10.3390/biom10040498. View

19.

Rajput V, Minkina T, Kumari A, Harish , Singh V, Verma K . Coping with the Challenges of Abiotic Stress in Plants: New Dimensions in the Field Application of Nanoparticles. Plants (Basel). 2021; 10(6). PMC: 8232821. DOI: 10.3390/plants10061221. View

20.

Feizi H, Moghaddam P, Shahtahmassebi N, Fotovat A . Impact of bulk and nanosized titanium dioxide (TiO2) on wheat seed germination and seedling growth. Biol Trace Elem Res. 2011; 146(1):101-6. DOI: 10.1007/s12011-011-9222-7. View