Issue 8, 2020

Emerging investigator series: molecular mechanisms of plant salinity stress tolerance improvement by seed priming with cerium oxide nanoparticles

Abstract

Engineered nanomaterials interfaced with plant seeds can improve stress tolerance during the vulnerable seedling stage. Herein, we investigated how priming seeds with antioxidant poly(acrylic acid)-coated cerium oxide nanoparticles (PNC) impacts cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) seedling morphological, physiological, biochemical, and transcriptomic traits under salinity stress. Seeds primed with 500 mg L−1 PNC in water (24 h) and germinated under salinity stress (200 mM NaCl) retained nanoparticles in the seed coat inner tegmen, cotyledon, and root apical meristem. Seed priming with PNC significantly (P < 0.05) increased seedling root length (56%), fresh weight (41%), and dry weight (38%), modified root anatomical structure, and increased root vitality (114%) under salt stress compared with controls (water). PNC seed priming led to a decrease in reactive oxygen species (ROS) accumulation in seedling roots (46%) and alleviated root morphological and physiological changes induced by salinity stress. Roots from exposed seeds exhibited similar Na content, significantly decreased K (6%), greater Ca (22%) and Mg content (60%) compared to controls. A total of 4779 root transcripts were differentially expressed by PNC seed priming alone relative to controls with no nanoparticles under non-saline conditions. Under salinity stress, differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in PNC seed priming treatments relative to non-nanoparticle controls were associated with ROS pathways (13) and ion homeostasis (10), indicating that ROS and conserved Ca2+ plant signaling pathways likely play pivotal roles in PNC-induced improvement of salinity tolerance. These results provide potential unifying molecular mechanisms of nanoparticle-seed priming enhancement of plant salinity tolerance.

Graphical abstract: Emerging investigator series: molecular mechanisms of plant salinity stress tolerance improvement by seed priming with cerium oxide nanoparticles

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
14 Ebr. 2020
Accepted
23 Mezh. 2020
First published
24 Mezh. 2020

Environ. Sci.: Nano, 2020,7, 2214-2228

Author version available

Emerging investigator series: molecular mechanisms of plant salinity stress tolerance improvement by seed priming with cerium oxide nanoparticles

J. An, P. Hu, F. Li, H. Wu, Y. Shen, J. C. White, X. Tian, Z. Li and J. P. Giraldo, Environ. Sci.: Nano, 2020, 7, 2214 DOI: 10.1039/D0EN00387E

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements