Salinity and drought stress substantially decrease crop yield and superiority, directly threatening the food supply needed to meet the rising food needs of the growing total population. Nanotechnology is a step towards improving agricultural output and stress tolerance by improving the efficacy of inputs in agriculture via targeted delivery, controlled release, and enhanced solubility and adhesion while also reducing significant damage. The direct application of nanoparticles (NPs)/nanomaterials can boost the performance and effectiveness of physio‐biochemical and molecular mechanisms in plants under stress conditions, leading to advanced stress tolerance. Therefore, we presented the effects and plant responses to stress conditions, and also explored the potential of nanomaterials for improving agricultural systems, and discussed the advantages of applying NPs at various developmental stages to alleviate the negative effects of salinity and drought stress. Moreover, we feature the recent innovations in state‐of‐the‐art nanobiotechnology, specifically NP‐mediated genome editing via CRISPR/Cas system, to develop stress‐smart crops. However, further investigations are needed to unravel the role of nanobiotechnology in addressing climate change challenges in modern agricultural systems. We propose that combining nanobiotechnology, genome editing and speed breeding techniques could enable the designing of climate‐smart cultivars (particularly bred or genetically modified plant varieties) to meet the food security needs of the rising world population.

The escalating challenges posed by metal(loid) toxicity in agricultural ecosystems, exacerbated by rapid climate change and anthropogenic pressures, demand urgent attention. Soil contamination is a critical issue because it significantly impacts crop productivity. The widespread threat of metal(loid) toxicity can jeopardize global food security due to contaminated food supplies and pose environmental risks, contributing to soil and water pollution and thus impacting the whole ecosystem. In this context, plants have evolved complex mechanisms to combat metal(loid) stress. Amid the array of innovative approaches, omics, notably transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics, have emerged as transformative tools, shedding light on the genes, proteins, and key metabolites involved in metal(loid) stress responses and tolerance mechanisms. These identified candidates hold promise for developing high-yielding crops with desirable agronomic traits. Computational biology tools like bioinformatics, biological databases, and analytical pipelines support these omics approaches by harnessing diverse information and facilitating the mapping of genotype-to-phenotype relationships under stress conditions. This review explores: (1) the multifaceted strategies that plants use to adapt to metal(loid) toxicity in their environment; (2) the latest findings in metal(loid)-mediated transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics studies across various plant species; (3) the integration of omics data with artificial intelligence and high-throughput phenotyping; (4) the latest bioinformatics databases, tools and pipelines for single and/or multi-omics data integration; (5) the latest insights into stress adaptations and tolerance mechanisms for future outlooks; and (6) the capacity of omics advances for creating sustainable and resilient crop plants that can thrive in metal(loid)-contaminated environments.

In the era of technology, nanotechnology has been introduced as a new window for agriculture. However, no attention has been paid to the effect of cerium dioxide nanoparticles (nCeO₂) on the reproductive stage of plant development to evaluate their toxicity and safety. To address this important topic, bean plants (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) treated aerially with nCeO₂ suspension at 250–2000 mg L⁻¹ were cultivated until flowering and seed production in the greenhouse condition. Microscopy analysis was carried out on sectioned anthers and ovules at different developmental stages. The pollen’s mother cell development in nCeO₂ treatments was normal at early stages, the same as control plants. However, the results indicated that pollen grains underwent serious structural damages, including chromosome separation abnormality at anaphase I, pollen wall defect, and pollen grain malformations in nCeO₂-treated plants at the highest concentration, which resulted in pollen abortion and yield losses. On the ovule side, the progression of development only at the highest concentration was modified in the two-nucleated embryo sac stage, probably due to apoptosis in nuclei. Nevertheless, the findings confirmed the more pronounced vulnerability of male reproductive development under nCeO₂ exposure than female development. The higher concentration decreased seed productivity, including seed set in either pods or whole plant (13% and 18% compared to control, respectively). The data suggested the potential application of nCeO₂ at optimal dosages as a plant productivity ameliorative. However, a higher dosage is considered as an eco-environmental hazard. To our best knowledge, this is the first study analyzing reproductive plant response upon exposure to nCeO₂.

Plant resistance to salinity stress is one of the main challenges of agriculture. The comprehension of the molecular and cellular mechanisms involved in plant tolerance to salinity can help to contrast crop losses due to high salt conditions in soil. In this study, Salicornia brachiata and Suaeda maritima, two plants with capacity to adapt to high salinity levels, were investigated at proteome level to highlight the key processes involved in their tolerance to NaCl. With this purpose, plants were treated with 200 mM NaCl as optimal concentration and 500 mM NaCl as a moderate stressing concentration for 14 days. Indeed, 200 mM NaCl did not result in an evident stress condition for both species, although photosynthesis was affected (with a general up accumulation of photosynthesis-related proteins in S. brachiata under salinity). Our findings indicate a coordinated response to salinity in both the halophytes considered, under NaCl conditions. In addition to photosynthesis, heat shock proteins and peroxidase, expansins, signaling processes, and modulation of transcription/translation were affected by salinity. Interestingly, our results suggested distinct mechanisms of tolerance to salinity between the two species considered, with S. brachiata likely having a more efficient mechanism of response to NaCl.