Interaction of nano-sized nutrients with plant biomass: a review

Plant lignocellulosic biomass is an important natural resource providing (macro) molecules of industrial relevance (e.g. cell wall polysaccharides, secondary metabolites, sugars), as well as wood (Guerriero et al. 2014, 2016b). The synthesis of plant biomass depends, among other factors (e.g. light availability, photoperiod, temperature), on soil nutrient availability (Chatzistathis and Therios 2013), and the effects on plant cell wall synthesis can be quite strong in the case of both macro- and micronutrient deficiencies. The impact of nanotechnology on agriculture has been a real revolution, an inspiration for innovative approaches, but also a source of controversies ( vide infra ). The exploitation of the wall pores of plant cells is at the base of nutrient nano-delivery (Liu and Lal 2015); despite the great potential of this innovation in agriculture, a thorough understanding of the relationship nanofertilizers/plants is still lacking. Plant lignocellulosic biomass is a renewable resource which provides wood, a major commodity for mankind, as well as molecules used as building blocks in chemical industry. It is known that nutrition impacts plant biomass production, by acting, either directly or indirectly, on cell wall-associated processes. Well-documented are the roles of both macro- and micronutrients on plant growth and development. Nanotechnology has given a new impetus to agriculture: several studies have indeed published the effects of nano-sized nutrients/nanoparticles on plants. We here review the published literature on the effects of nano-sized nutrients on plants, by adopting, when documented, a cell wall perspective, and we underline both the positive and negative aspects.