Understanding the possible cellular responses in plants under micro(nano)-plastic (MNPs): Balancing the structural...

The harmful impacts of micro(nano)-plastics (MNPs) on plants have gained significant attention in the last decades. Plants have a greater tendency to aggregate positively charged (+ve) MNPs on leaf surfaces and root tips, and it can be more challenging to enter the plant body than the negatively charged (-ve) MNPs. MNPs <20 nm can directly cross the cell wall and enter mainly via leaf stomata and root crack portion. Additionally, plants with aerenchyma tissue or higher water requirement might be more vulnerable to MNPs as well as environmental factors also affected MNPs uptake like porosity and structure (i.e. crack of soil) of soil, wind speed, etc. The subsequent translocation of MNPs hamper regular morphological, physiological, and biochemical functions by causing oxidative stress, altering several plant metabolic pathways, reducing the rate of photosynthesis and nutrient intake, etc. These induce cellular toxicity and chromosomal alteration; as a result, the total biomass and productivity reduce vigorously. However, there is a knowledge gap regarding MNPs' uptake by plants and related variables affecting phytotoxicity at the omics levels. So, the present literature review represents a comprehensive theoretical framework that includes genomics, transcriptomics, miRNAomics, proteomics, metabolomics, and ionomics/metallomics, which is established to understand the effects of MNPs on plants at the molecular level. As well as it will also help in further studies of the research community in the future because this field is still in the preliminary stages due to a lack of study.