Heavy metal stress in the agro-environment: consequences, adaptations and remediation.

The adverse effects of abiotic components of the environment have led to noteworthy increases in drip global agricultural productivity. Among abiotic stresses, heavy metal (HM) stress is an important environmental factor with a significant negative impact on plants and requires serious attention due to its global presence. HMs are mostly found as key chemical components integrated into rock, particularly in industrial and urban areas. Rapid industrial development coupled with urbanization has amplified the accumulation of anthropogenic HMs in the environment. In comparison with organic substances, HMs cannot be decayed by biological interventions and thus remain in the environment for an extended period and subsequently pass through the food chain and subsequently accumulate in the bodies of humans and animals. This review provides a detailed account of the occurrence and behaviour of HMs in the environment, especially in the pedosphere, which affects the soil processes and physiology and biochemistry of plants. However, plants, particularly HM accumulators, are equipped with complex multilevel defense mechanisms to survive HM-induced stress. Here, we attempted to provide an explicit overview of these mechanisms at the cellular and molecular levels. Special emphasis has been given to the potential applications of these HM-tolerant traits in the transgenic development and phytoremediation of HMs, which might shape the future of research in the domains of plant science and agriculture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]