Comparative analysis of heavy metal tolerance in Maize and strategies to enhance toxicity stress

Heavy metals pollute the ecosystem and negatively affect soil fertility, plant development, productivity and physiology. A plant's tolerance against heavy metal stress depends on its specie, heavy metal type, and period of exposure to that heavy metal. Plant hormones and organic compounds alleviate heavy metals stress in plants in various ways depending on plant species. Seed priming, plant growth regulator and osmoprotectants are a few latest techniques to alleviate heavy metal stress in various plants. These applications efficiently regulate the antioxidant enzyme activities to mitigate plant toxins, creditably enhancing the tolerance in plants through conserving cellular homeostasis and altering the adverse effects of toxic metals stress on plants. These novel techniques improve our understanding to enhance crop productivity and reduce global food security risks under heavy metal stress. Comparison between these strategies and maize genetic resistance arise new research questions.