Plants are very often confronted by different heavy metal (HM) stressors that adversely impair their growth and productivity. Among HMs, chromium (Cr) is one of the most prevalent toxic trace metals found in agricultural soils because of anthropogenic activities, lack of efficient treatment, and unregulated disposal. It has a huge detrimental impact on the physiological, biochemical, and molecular traits of crops, in addition to being carcinogenic to humans. In soil, Cr exists in different forms, including Cr (III) “trivalent” and Cr (VI) “hexavalent”, but the most pervasive and severely hazardous form to the biota is Cr (VI). Despite extensive research on the effects of Cr stress, the exact molecular mechanisms of Cr sensing, uptake, translocation, phytotoxicity, transcript processing, translation, post-translational protein modifications, as well as plant defensive responses are still largely unknown. Even though plants lack a Cr transporter system, it is efficiently accumulated and transported by other essential ion transporters, hence posing a serious challenge to the development of Cr-tolerant cultivars. In this review, we discuss Cr toxicity in plants, signaling perception, and transduction. Further, we highlight various mitigation processes for Cr toxicity in plants, such as microbial, chemical, and nano-based priming. We also discuss the biotechnological advancements in mitigating Cr toxicity in plants using plant and microbiome engineering approaches. Additionally, we also highlight the role of molecular breeding in mitigating Cr toxicity in sustainable agriculture. Finally, some conclusions are drawn along with potential directions for future research in order to better comprehend Cr signaling pathways and its mitigation in sustainable agriculture.

Humans are constantly facing multiple health challenges from both communicable and non-communicable diseases that significantly affect their health. Additionally, drug resistance or failure has made the situation even worse and poses serious challenges for researchers to develop new drugs. Hence, to address these problems, there is an urgent need to discover and develop timely and long-term-based therapeutic treatments from different sources. One such approach is harnessing the potential of plant secondary metabolites. Plants have been utilized for therapeutic purposes in addition to being used for nutritional benefits. In the last two decades, plant-based drug developments have been one of the effective means of treating human diseases owing to their multiple functions. More recently, anti-nutritional factors (ANFs) have emerged as one of the important targets for novel plant-based drug development due to their multifaceted and potential pharmacological properties. However, their anti-nutritional properties have been the major setback for their limited success in the pharmacological sector. In this review, we provide an overview of ANFs and their beneficial roles in preventing human diseases with multiple case studies. We also highlight the recent developments and applications of ANFs in the food industry, agriculture, and pharmaceutics with future perspectives. Furthermore, we evaluate meta-analyses on ANFs from the last 30 years in relation to their function in human health benefits. This review is an endeavor to reevaluate the merit of these natural compounds and explore their potential for both human and animal health.

Plant diseases pose a serious threat to crop production and the agricultural economy across the globe. Currently, chemical pesticides are frequently employed to combat these infections, which cause environmental toxicity and the emergence of resistant pathogens. Moreover, the genetic manipulation of plant defense pathways and the breeding of resistant genes has attained limited success due to the rapid evolution of pathogen virulence and resistance, together with host range expansion. Additionally, due to climate change and global warming, the occurrence of multiple stresses during disease outbreak has further impacted overall crop growth and productivity, posing a serious threat to food security. In this regard, harnessing the plant beneficial microbiome and its products can provide novel avenues for disease resistance in addition to boosting agricultural output, soil fertility and environmental sustainability. In plant–beneficial microbiome interactions, induced systemic resistance (ISR) has emerged as a key mechanism by which a beneficial microbiome primes the entire plant system for better defense against a wide range of phytopathogens and pests. In this review, we provide the recent developments on the role of plant beneficial microbiomes in disease resistance. We also highlight knowledge gaps and discuss how the plant immune system distinguishes pathogens and beneficial microbiota. Furthermore, we provide an overview on how immune signature hormones, such as salicylic acid (SA), jasmonic acid (JA) and ethylene (ET), shape plant beneficial microbiome. We also discuss the importance of various high-throughput tools and their integration with synthetic biology to design tailored microbial communities for disease resistance. Finally, we conclude by highlighting important themes that need future attention in order to fill the knowledge gaps regarding the plant immune system and plant-beneficial-microbiome-mediated disease resistance.

Mycotoxins are produced primarily as secondary fungal metabolites. Mycotoxins are toxic in nature and naturally produced by various species of fungi, which usually contaminate food and feed ingredients. The growth of these harmful fungi depends on several environmental factors, such as pH, humidity, and temperature; therefore, the mycotoxin distribution also varies among global geographical areas. Various rules and regulations regarding mycotoxins are imposed by the government bodies of each country, which are responsible for addressing global food and health security concerns. Despite this legislation, the incidence of mycotoxin contamination is continuously increasing. In this review, we discuss the geographical regulatory guidelines and recommendations that are implemented around the world to control mycotoxin contamination of food and feed products. Researchers and inventors from various parts of the world have reported several innovations for controlling mycotoxin-associated health consequences. Unfortunately, most of these techniques are restricted to laboratory scales and cannot reach users. Consequently, to date, no single device has been commercialized that can detect all mycotoxins that are naturally available in the environment. Therefore, in this study, we describe severe health hazards that are associated with mycotoxin exposure, their molecular signaling pathways and processes of toxicity, and their genotoxic and cytotoxic effects toward humans and animals. We also discuss recent developments in the construction of a sensitive and specific device that effectively implements mycotoxin identification and detection methods. In addition, our study comprehensively examines the recent advancements in the field for mitigating the health consequences and links them with the molecular and signaling pathways that are activated upon mycotoxin exposure. Graphical Abstract

Horticultural crops are vulnerable to diverse microbial infections, which have a detrimental impact on their growth, fruit quality, and productivity. Currently, chemical pesticides are widely employed to manage diseases in horticultural crops, but they have negative effects on the environment, human health, soil physiochemical properties, and biodiversity. Additionally, the use of pesticides has facilitated the development and spread of resistant pathovars, which have emerged as a serious concern in contemporary agriculture. Nonetheless, the adverse consequences of chemical pesticides on the environment and public health have worried scientists greatly in recent years, which has led to a switch to the use of biocontrol agents such as bacteria, fungi, and insects to control plant pathogens. Biocontrol agents (BCAs) form an integral part of organic farming, which is regarded as the future of sustainable agriculture. Hence, harnessing the potential of BCAs is an important viable strategy to control microbial disease in horticultural crops in a way that is also ecofriendly and can improve the soil health. Here, we discuss the role of the biological control of microbial diseases in crops. We also discuss different microbial-based BCAs such as fungal, bacterial, and viral and their role in disease management. Next, we discuss the factors that affect the performance of the BCAs under field conditions. This review also highlights the genetic engineering of BCAs to enhance their biocontrol efficiency and other growth traits. Finally, we highlight the challenges and opportunities of biocontrol-based disease management in horticulture crops and future research directions to boost their efficacy and applications.