We have performed an ab) initio investigation of the energetic stability, and the electronic properties of transition metals (TMs = Mn, Fe, Co, and Ru) adsorbed on graphene, upon the presence of grain boundaries (GBs); where we found an energetic preference for the TMs lying on the GB sites (TM/GB). Further energy barrier calculations, of the transition metals in TM/GB, reveal that the GBs promote the formation of energetically favorable diffusion channels on graphene. By increasing the concentration of the TM adatoms, the energetic stability of the TM/GB systems has been strengthened; giving rise to TM nanolines (TM-NLs). The electronic properties of those TM-NLs were characterized through extensive electronic band structure calculations, where the energy bands of the TM/GB systems indicate the appearance of an anisotropic spin-polarized electronic current along the TM-NLs on graphene. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.