Metabolic adaptations in plants: navigating heavy metal stress for sustainable plant growth

With the growing global food demand and increasing heavy metal stress in crop cultivation, understanding how plants adapt at the metabolic level is key to sustainable agriculture. This review looks at how plants handle heavy metal stress through strategies like antioxidant defense, metal storage, and chelation. It highlights how these adaptations help plants survive and support global food production. Traditional breeding methods face challenges, leading to a shift toward new approaches like nanotechnology and advanced omics technologies. These innovations offer targeted solutions for managing heavy metal stress and improving agriculture. The review emphasizes the need for collaboration and responsible use of these technologies to ensure a sustainable future for agriculture.