Review Engineered nanomaterials for plant growth and development: A perspective analysis Sandeep Kumar Verma a, ⁎, Ashok Kumar Das b , Manoj Kumar Patel c , Ashish Shah a , Vinay Kumar d,e , Saikat Gantait f,g a Department of Biotechnology, Innovate Mediscience India, Vijay Nagar, Indore 452010, Madhya Pradesh, India b Center for Superfunctional Materials, School of Natural Sciences, Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST), Ulsan 44919, South Korea c School of Studies in Life Sciences, Pt. Ravishankar Shukla University, Raipur 492010, Chhattisgarh, India d Department of Biotechnology, Modern College, Savitribai Phule Pune University, Ganeshkhind, 411016 Pune, Maharashtra, India e Department of Environmental Science, Savitribai Phule Pune University, Ganeshkhind, 411016 Pune, Maharashtra, India f All India Coordinated Research Project on Groundnut, Directorate of Research, Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya, Kalyani, Nadia 741235, West Bengal, India g Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, Faculty of Agriculture, Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya, Mohanpur, Nadia 741252, West Bengal, India HIGHLIGHTS • Negative and positive impacts of engineered nanomaterials (ENMs) on plant growth and development • Critical review on interactions between ENMs and plants • Views on the types of ENMs, their mode of exposure to plants and implications on plants • Role of ENMs in altering miRNAs ex- pressions in the plant's stress response • Morphology-dependent features of ENMs and their applications in crop improvement GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT abstract article info Article history: Received 28 December 2017 Received in revised form 26 February 2018 Accepted 26 February 2018 Available online xxxx Editor: D. Barcelo With the overwhelmingly rapid advancement in the field of nanotechnology, the engineered nanomaterials (ENMs) have been extensively used in various areas of the plant system, including quality improvement, growth and nutritional value enhancement, gene preservation etc. There are several recent reports on the ENMs' influ- ence on growth enhancements, growth inhibition as well as certain toxic impacts on plant. However, transloca- tion, growth responses and stress modulation mechanisms of ENMs in the plant systems call for better and in- depth understanding. Herein, we are presenting a comprehensive and critical account of different types of ENMs, their applications and their positive, negative and null impacts on physiological and molecular aspects of plant growth, development and stress responses. Recent reports revealed mixed effects on plants, ranging from enhanced crop yield, epi/genetic alterations, and phytotoxicity, resulting from the ENMs' exposure. Credit- able research in recent years has revealed that the effects of ENMs on plants are species specific and are variable among plant species. ENM exposures are reported to trigger free radical formation, responsive scavenging, and antioxidant armories in the exposed plants. The ENMs are also reported to induce aberrant expressions of microRNAs, the key post-transcriptional regulators of plant growth, development and stress-responses of plants. However, these modulations, if judiciously done, may lead to improved plant growth and yield. A better under- standing of the interactions between ENMs and plant responses, including their uptake transport, internalization, Keywords: Cytotoxicity Growth response Nanoparticle uptake Phytonanotechnology Translocation Science of the Total Environment 630 (2018) 1413–1435 ⁎ Corresponding author at: Biotechnology Laboratory, Department of Biology, Abant Izeet Baysal University, 14030 Bolu, Turkey. E-mail address: sandeep.20j@gmail.com (S.K. Verma). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.02.313 0048-9697/© 2018 Published by Elsevier B.V. Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Science of the Total Environment journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/scitotenv