Responses of Crop Plants Under Nanoparticles Supply in Alleviating Biotic and Abiotic Stresses

Crop plants are continuously exposed to abiotic and biotic constraints like salt, drought, heat, heavy metal, ultraviolet, fungi, bacteria, pathogens etc. Plants respond to them by altering their physiology and metabolism. The response is initiated at molecular, cellular and at whole plant level. Plants undergo alterations in growth, photosynthesis, yield and quality attributes when exposed to stresses. Nevertheless, these complex processes are modulated by the application of different kinds of nanoparticles (NPs). In the current times, nanotechnology, as a broad interdisciplinary area of research, finds potential in agriculture regarding plant disease management, pathogen detection and imparting stress tolerance. Nanoparticles at particular concentrations control growth, morpho-physiology and yield attributes under stress conditions. In the present chapter, we attempt to discuss various response alterations initiated by crop plants towards abiotic and biotic stresses, vis-à-vis controlling nature of various NPs doses in protecting these processes under these stress conditions.