Abstract

The role of zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) in plants and agriculture attracted huge interests during the last few years. A whole range of positive of NPs has been demonstrated and these exquisite material can be serve as alternatives to many fertilizers, micronutrients, fungicides or antimicrobial chemicals. The ameliorative roles against abiotic stress (drought, salinity and high temperature) in various crops are particularly significant. However, high concentrations of ZnO NPs have been observed to produce a range of toxicity including growth/yield inhibition, physiological aberrations, cytotoxicity, genotoxicity and oxidative stress. The positive or negative effects depend on the type, dose of nanomaterials, methods of treatments, developmental stage, and genotype of the species or environmental conditions. Until a fuller understating of various modes of interactions between ZnO NPs and plant genome or epigenome develops, it is difficult to use these new resources for the optimal benefit, substituting conventional agents of growth promotion or protection. This requires development of appropriate methods to identify plant conditions and optimize the nanomaterial treatment.

Keywords: Zinc oxide nanoparticles, beneficial effects, Abiotic stresses

Reference

Kumar, A., Singh, I. K., Mishra, R., Singh, A., Ramawat, N., & Singh, A. (2021). The role of zinc oxide nanoparticles in plants: A critical appraisal. In Nanomaterial Biointeractions at the Cellular, Organismal and System Levels (pp. 249-267). Springer, Cham.

• Lacerda, J. S., Martinez, H., Pedrosa, A., et al. (2018). Importance of zinc for arabica coffee and its effects on the chemical composition of raw grain and beverage quality. Crop Science, 58(3), 1360–1370.

• Usman, M., Farooq, M., Wakeel, A., et al. (2020). Nanotechnology in agriculture: Current status, challenges and future opportunities. Science of the Total Environment, 721, 137778.

• Faizan, M., Faraz, A., & Mir, A. R. (2020). Role of zinc oxide nanoparticles in countering negative effects generated by cadmium in Lycopersicon esculentum. Journal of Plant Growth Regulation, 1–15.

• Agarwal, H., Kumar, S.  V., & Kumar, R. (2017). A review on green synthesis of zinc oxide nanoparticles—An eco-friendly approach. Resource Effcient Technology, 3, 406–413.

• Taran, N., Storozhenko, V., Svietlova, N., et al. (2017). Effect of zinc and copper nanoparticles on
• drought resistance of wheat seedlings. Nanoscale Research Letters, 12(1), 60.

• Singh, A., Singh, N. B., Hussain, I., et al. (2016). Green synthesis of nano zinc oxide and evaluation of its impact on germination and metabolic activity of Solanum lycopersicum. Journal of Biotechnology, 233, 84–94.

• Soria-Castro, M., De la Rosa-García, S. C., Quintana, P., et al. (2019). Broad spectrum antimicrobial activity of ca(Zn(OH)3)2·2H2O and ZnO nanoparticles synthesized by the sol–gel method. Journal of Sol-Gel Science and Technology, 89, 284–294. https://doi.org/10.1007/ s10971-018-4759-y.

• Yoneyama, T., Ishikawa, S., & Fujimaki, S. (2015). Route and regulation of zinc, cadmium, and iron transport in rice plants (Oryza sativa L.) during vegetative growth and grain flling: Metal transporters, metal speciation, grain Cd reduction and Zn and Fe biofortifcation. International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 16(8), 19111–19129.

• da Cruz, T. N. M., Savassa, S. M., Montanha, G. S., et al. (2019). A new glance on root-to-shoot in vivo zinc transport and time-dependent physiological effects of ZnSO4 and ZnO nanoparticles on plants. Scientifc Reports, 9, 10416. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-46796-3.

• Du, W., Yang, J., Xiaoping, P., & Mao, H. (2019). Comparison study of zinc nanoparticles and zinc sulphate on wheat growth: From toxicity and zinc biofortifcation. Chemosphere, 227, 109–116.

• Wu, J., & Wang, T. (2020). Synergistic effect of zinc oxide nanoparticles and heat stress on the alleviation of transcriptional gene silencing in Arabidopsis thaliana. Bulletin of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology, 104(1), 49–56.

• Hassan, N. S., Salah El Din, T., Hendawey, M., et al. (2018). Magnetite and zinc oxide nanoparticles alleviated heat stress in wheat plants. Current Nanomaterials, 3(1), 32–43.

• Hu, W., Tian, S., Di, Q., Duan, S., & Dai, K. (2018). Effects of exogenous calcium on mesophyll cell ultrastructure, gas exchange, and photosystem II in tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum Linn.) under drought stress. Photosynthetica, 56(4), 1204–1211.

• Dimkpa, C. O., Singh, U., Bindraban, P., et al. (2019). Zinc oxide nanoparticles alleviate droughtinduced alterations in sorghum performance, nutrient acquisition, and grain fortifcation. Science of the Total Environment, 688, 926–934.

• Sun, L., Song, F., Guo, J., et al. (2020). Nano-ZnO-induced drought tolerance is associated with melatonin synthesis and metabolism in maize. International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 21(3), 782.