Micronutrients and their diverse role in agricultural crops: advances and future prospective

• Published in: Acta physiologiae plantarum Vol. 37; no. 7; p. 139
• Main Authors: Tripathi, Durgesh Kumar, Singh, Shweta, Singh, Swati, Mishra, Sanjay, Chauhan, D. K., Dubey, N. K.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01.07.2015
• Subjects: Agriculture; Biomedical and Life Sciences; carbohydrates; chlorophyll; copper; crops; cultivars; iron; Life Sciences; manganese; metabolism; Plant Anatomy/Development; Plant Biochemistry; Plant Genetics and Genomics; plant growth; plant micronutrients; Plant Pathology; Plant Physiology; Review; seed development; soil; soil erosion; toxicity; zinc; Micronutrients; Agriculture; Toxicity; Deficiency; Food security
• DOI: 10.1007/s11738-015-1870-3
• ISSN: 0137-5881

In plant sciences, the prodigious significance of micronutrient is unavoidable since plant relies primarily on micronutrient as it has profound influence on array of plant activities. Although micronutrients are abundantly present in the soil but plants usually acquire them in relatively trace amounts; hence, regarded as tracer element. B, Cu, Fe, Mn, Zn are such micronutrients required in minute amounts by plants but inexorably play an eminent role in plant growth and development. Plant metabolism, nutrient regulation, reproductive growth, chlorophyll synthesis, production of carbohydrates, fruit and seed development, etc., are such effective functions performed by micronutrients. These tracer elements when present at adequate level, elevate the healthy growth in plant physiological, biochemical and metabolic characteristics while their deficiency promotes abnormal growth in plants. Prevalence of micronutrient deficiency has become more common in recent years and the rate of their reduction has further been increased by the perpetual demands of modern crop cultivars, high soil erosion, etc. On the basis of present existing condition, it is not difficult to conclude that, the regular increment of micronutrient deficiency will be mostly responsible for the remarkable degradation in substantiality of agricultural crops somewhere in near future and so that this issue has now been the subject of intensified research among the breeder, ingenuities and expertise of science. These micronutrients can also be proven toxic when present at accelerated concentrations and such toxicity level endangers the plant growth. Taking this into consideration, the current review unfolds the phenomenal participation of micronutrients in plant sciences and gives a brief overview of the current understanding of main features concerning several micronutrient acquisitions in agricultural crop plants.