Nanoparticles in plant resistance against bacterial pathogens: current status and future prospects

Nanoparticles (NPs) serve immense roles in various fields of science. They have vastly upgraded conventional methods in the fields of agriculture and food sciences to eliminate growing threats of crop damage and disease, caused by various phytopathogens including bacteria, fungi, viruses, and some insects. Bacterial diseases resulted in mass damage of crops by adopting antibacterial resistance, which has proved to be a major threat leading to food scarcity. Therefore, numerous NPs with antibacterial potentials have been formulated to overcome the problem of antibiotic resistance alongside an increase in crop yield and boosting plant immunity. NPs synthesized through green synthesis techniques have proved to be more effective and environment-friendly than those synthesized via chemical methods. NPs exhibit great roles in plants ranging from enhanced crop yield to disease suppression, to targeted drug and pesticide deliveries inside the plants and acting as biosensors for pathogen detection. NPs serves major roles in disruption of cellular membranes, ROS production, altering of DNA and protein entities and changing energy transductions. This review focuses on the antibacterial effect of NPs on several plant bacterial pathogens, mostly, against Pseudomonas syringe, Ralstonia solanacearum, Xanthomonas axonopodis, Clavibacter michiganensisand Pantoea ananatis both in vivo and ex vivo, thereby minimizing their antibacterial resistance and enhancing the plants acquired immunity. Therefore, NPs present a safer and more reliable bactericidal activity against various disease-causing bacteria in plants.