Recent omics progress in nanobiotechnology for plant abiotic stress tolerance improvement

Use of nanomaterials (NMs) to improve plant abiotic stress tolerance (AST) is a hot topic in NM-enabled agriculture. Previous studies mainly focused on the physiological and biochemical responses of plants treated with NMs under abiotic stress. To use NMs for improving plant AST, it is necessary to understand how they act on this tolerance at the omics and epigenetics levels. In this review, we summarized the knowledge of NM-improved abiotic stress tolerance in relation to omics (such as metabolic, transcriptomic, proteomic, and microRNA), DNA methylation, and histone modifications. Overall, NMs can improve plant abiotic stress tolerance through the modulation at omics and epigenetics levels.