With the rapid advancement in nanotechnology, release of nanoscale materials into the environment is inevitable. Such contamination may negatively influence the functioning of the ecosystems. Many manufactured nanoparticles (NPs) contain heavy metals, which can cause soil and water contamination. Proteomic techniques have contributed substantially in understanding the molecular mechanisms of plant responses against various stresses by providing a link between gene expression and cell metabolism. As the coding regions of genome are responsible for plant adaptation to adverse conditions, protein signatures provide insights into the phytotoxicity of NPs at proteome level. This review summarizes the recent contributions of plant proteomic research to elaborate the complex molecular pathways of plant response to NPs stress.

Modulation of plant proteome composition is an inevitable process to cope with the environmental challenges including heavy metal (HM) stress. Soil and water contaminated with hazardous metals not only cause permanent and irreversible health problems, but also result substantial reduction in crop yields. In course of time, plants have evolved complex mechanisms to regulate the uptake, mobilization, and intracellular concentration of metal ions to alleviate the stress damages. Since, the functional translated portion of the genome plays an essential role in plant stress response, proteomic studies provide us a finer picture of protein networks and metabolic pathways primarily involved in cellular detoxification and tolerance mechanism. In the present review, an attempt is made to present the state of the art of recent development in proteomic techniques and significant contributions made so far for better understanding the complex mechanism of plant metal stress acclimation. Role of metal stress-related proteins involved in antioxidant defense system and primary metabolism is critically reviewed to get a bird’s-eye view on the different strategies of plants to detoxify HMs. In addition to the advantages and disadvantages of different proteomic methodologies, future applications of proteome study of subcellular organelles are also discussed to get the new insights into the plant cell response to HMs.

Plant cells are frequently challenged with a wide range of adverse environmental conditions that restrict plant growth and limit the productivity of agricultural crops. Rapid development of nanotechnology and unsystematic discharge of metal containing nanoparticles (NPs) into the environment pose a serious threat to the ecological receptors including plants. Engineered nanoparticles are synthesized by physical, chemical, biological, or hybrid methods. In addition, volcanic eruption, mechanical grinding of earthquake-generating faults in Earth’s crust, ocean spray, and ultrafine cosmic dust are the natural source of NPs in the atmosphere. Untying the nature of plant interactions with NPs is fundamental for assessing their uptake and distribution, as well as evaluating phytotoxicity. Modern mass spectrometry-based proteomic techniques allow precise identification of low abundant proteins, protein–protein interactions, and in-depth analyses of cellular signaling networks. The present review highlights current understanding of plant responses to NPs exploiting high-throughput proteomics techniques. Synthesis of NPs, their morphophysiological effects on crops, and applications of proteomic techniques, are discussed in details to comprehend the underlying mechanism of NPs stress acclimation.

Abiotic stresses, such as flooding, drought, salinity, and high/low temperatures, are the major constraints that global crop production faces at present. Plants respond to a stress by modulating abundance of candidate proteins, either by up-regulating expression or by the synthesizing novel proteins primarily associated with plant defense system. The cellular mechanisms of stress sensing and signal transduction into cellular organelles have been reported. Nevertheless, the responses of plant cells to abiotic stresses differ in each organ. As the correlation between the expression of mRNAs and the abundance of their corresponding proteins is difficult to assess in specific organs, proteomics techniques provide one of the best options for the functional analysis of translated regions of the genome. The present review summarizes the organ-specific proteome analyses for better understanding of the response mechanisms of crops to abiotic stresses, including flooding, drought and salinity. The differential organ specific responses against each of these stresses are discussed in detail to provide new insights into plant stress response mechanisms at protein level.