Nano-enabled Microbiome Engineering for Next-Generation Crop Improvement Toward Climate-Smart Sustainable Agriculture and Food Security

In the face of global challenges such as population growth, climate change, and decreasing arable land, agriculture must evolve toward more sustainable and resilient practices. Traditional crop improvement and protection methods are increasingly inadequate, underscoring the need for innovative, potentially transformative strategies to enhance plant health and productivity. A promising avenue involves manipulating plant-associated microbial communities, or microbiomes, which are crucial for nutrient uptake, disease resistance, and stress tolerance. Engineering the rhizosphere microbiomes could enable crops to better withstand environmental stressors and pathogens. Nanotechnology offers a versatile platform for advancing this approach, leveraging the unique properties of nanomaterials to precisely control biological processes at the molecular level. Nanoscale materials can enhance microbial functions, target plant pathogens, and stabilize microbial inoculants in soil. Despite these advances, understanding the full potential and long-term impacts of nano-enabled microbiome engineering remains incomplete, underscoring the need for further research. This review explores the potential of nanotechnology-driven strategies to modulate plant-microbe interactions for microbiome engineering and crop protection, emphasizing how different nanomaterials influence microbial behavior, promote beneficial microbes, and suppress harmful pathogens. The review discusses applications such as nanoparticle-based nutrient delivery systems, microbial inoculant encapsulation, and quorum-sensing modulation. It also explains how nanotechnology improves nutrient uptake, disease resistance, and resilience to abiotic stresses such as drought and salinity. While promising, nano-enabled approaches also face challenges, including environmental risks and regulatory hurdles, which need thorough investigation. Recognizing these gaps, this review aims to provide a comprehensive overview and critical assessment of current research, outlining future directions for integrating nanotechnology into sustainable agricultural practices to ensure global food security.