Seed priming approaches for climate-resilient agriculture

Extreme weather events linked with climate change are increasingly affecting global crop production, emphasizing the need to develop and optimize efficient and biosafe technologies with stress-alleviating effects. Seed priming, a pre-sowing treatment that improves seed performance under stress conditions, has emerged as a promising approach for sustainable agriculture. The current review explores latest findings in seed priming techniques, including hydropriming, osmopriming, biopriming, and nanopriming, highlighting their role in enhancing plant resilience against abiotic stress due to climate change. We discuss the physiological, biochemical, and molecular mechanisms underlying priming-induced resilience against abiotic stress. In this concept, priming techniques, with a particular focus on nanopriming, could be exploited as unique stress mitigating practices, with potential for incorporation in sustainable crop management approaches. Nanopriming utilizes nanoparticles to enhance plant resilience to subsequent stress conditions. This strategy can be further improved by utilizing smart nanocarrier systems with distinctive properties, such as being bio-based, biodegradable, biocompatible, non-toxic, with capability to carry a vast array of compounds (e.g. hormones, amino acids, nutrients, essential oils), leading to their sustained and slow release. This innovative approach involves pre-treating seeds to enhance their germination and growth, making them more adaptable to adverse weather conditions.