RESUMEN
The vastly expanding global population raised the demand for profuse food grain production. For food security in India, high yield and nutritional quality of grain crops, both are essential. Zinc is a crucial micronutrient generally deficient in food grains grown in India, reflecting their deteriorating nutritional quality. To address these issues, in the present study, a novel tri-component nanoparticle of chitosanzinc-salicylic acid (CS-Zn-SA NPs) has been synthesized by ionotropic gelation method. The average size of synthesized CS-Zn-SA NPs was recorded 13.5 nm by dynamic light scattering (DLS) spectroscopy. The presence of chitosan, zinc and salicylic acid and crosslinking among these components in synthesized nanoparticles has been demonstrated by Fourier transforms infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). Further, synthesized CS-Zn-SA NPs at various concentrations (50-200 ppm) were evaluated for seed germination via seed priming, yield, grain zinc content and defence enzyme activity through the foliar application. CS-Zn-SA NPs revealed significant seed germination activities, 19.8 % higher grain yield, 45.5 % increased grain zinc content and manyfold defence enzyme activities than the control. The obtained results exposed the potential of CS-Zn-SA NPs as a stimulant for effective seedling development, higher yield, a virtuous micronutrient fortifying agent and defence enzyme promoter.
Asunto(s)
Quitosano , Nanopartículas , Zinc/química , Ácido Salicílico/farmacología , Quitosano/química , Nanopartículas/química , Grano Comestible/química , Micronutrientes/análisisRESUMEN
Drought has a detrimental effect on crop production, affecting economically important plants' growth rates and development. Catharanthus roseus is an important medicinal plant that produces many pharmacologically active compounds, some of which have significant antitumor activity. The effect of bulk salicylic acid (SA) and salicylic acid nanoparticles (SA-NPs) were evaluated on water-stressed Catharanthus roseus plants. The results showed that SA and SA-NPs alleviated the negative effects of drought in the treated plants by increasing their shoot and root weights, relative water content, leaf area index, chlorophyll content, and total alkaloids percentage. From the results, a low concentration (0.05 mM) of SA-NPs exerted positive effects on the treated plants, while the best results of the bulk SA were recorded after using the highest concentration (0.1 mM). Both treatments increased the expression level of WRKY1, WRKY2, WRKY40, LEA, and MYC2 genes, while the mRNA level of MPKK1 and MPK6 did not show a significant change. This study discussed the importance of SA-NPs in the induction of drought stress tolerance even when used in low concentrations, in contrast to bulk SA, which exerts significant results only at higher concentrations.