TY - JOUR
T1 - Different physiological responses of C3 and C4 plants to nanomaterials
AU - Bai, Tonghao
AU - Zhang, Peng
AU - Guo, Zhiling
AU - Chetwynd, Andrew J.
AU - Zhang, Mei
AU - Adeel, Muhammad
AU - Li, Mingshu
AU - Guo, Kerui
AU - Gao, Ruize
AU - Li, Jianwei
AU - Hao, Yi
AU - Rui, Yukui
PY - 2021/5
Y1 - 2021/5
N2 - Several studies have previously reported that nanomaterial uptake and toxicity in plants are species dependent. However, the differences between photosynthetic pathways, C3 and C4, following nanomaterial exposure are poorly understood. In the current work, wheat and rice, two C3 pathway species are compared to amaranth and maize, which utilize the C4 photosynthetic mechanism. These plants were cultured in soils which were spiked with CuO, Ag, TiO2, MWCNT, and FLG nanomaterials. Overall, the C4 plant exhibited higher resilience to NM stress than C3 plants. In particular, significant differences were observed in chlorophyll contents with rice returning a 40.9–54.2% decrease compared to 3.5–15.1% for maize. Fv/Fm levels were significantly reduced by up to 51% in rice whereas no significant reductions were observed in amaranth and maize. Furthermore, NM uptake in the C3 species was greater than that in C4 plants, a trend that was also seen in metal concentration. TEM results showed that CuO NPs altered the chloroplast thylakoid structure in rice leaves and a large number of CuO NPs were observed in the vascular sheath cells. In contrast, there were no significant changes in the chloroplasts in the vascular sheath and no significant CuO NPs were found in maize leaves. This study was the first to systematically characterize the effect of metal and carbon-based nanomaterials in soil on C3 and C4 plants, providing a new perspective for understanding the impact of nanomaterials on plants.
AB - Several studies have previously reported that nanomaterial uptake and toxicity in plants are species dependent. However, the differences between photosynthetic pathways, C3 and C4, following nanomaterial exposure are poorly understood. In the current work, wheat and rice, two C3 pathway species are compared to amaranth and maize, which utilize the C4 photosynthetic mechanism. These plants were cultured in soils which were spiked with CuO, Ag, TiO2, MWCNT, and FLG nanomaterials. Overall, the C4 plant exhibited higher resilience to NM stress than C3 plants. In particular, significant differences were observed in chlorophyll contents with rice returning a 40.9–54.2% decrease compared to 3.5–15.1% for maize. Fv/Fm levels were significantly reduced by up to 51% in rice whereas no significant reductions were observed in amaranth and maize. Furthermore, NM uptake in the C3 species was greater than that in C4 plants, a trend that was also seen in metal concentration. TEM results showed that CuO NPs altered the chloroplast thylakoid structure in rice leaves and a large number of CuO NPs were observed in the vascular sheath cells. In contrast, there were no significant changes in the chloroplasts in the vascular sheath and no significant CuO NPs were found in maize leaves. This study was the first to systematically characterize the effect of metal and carbon-based nanomaterials in soil on C3 and C4 plants, providing a new perspective for understanding the impact of nanomaterials on plants.
KW - C3 plant
KW - C4 plant
KW - Response
KW - Nanomaterials
KW - Photosynthetic
KW - Chloroplast
U2 - 10.1007/s11356-021-12507-7
DO - 10.1007/s11356-021-12507-7
M3 - Article
SN - 0944-1344
VL - 28
SP - 25542
EP - 25551
JO - Environmental Science and Pollution Research
JF - Environmental Science and Pollution Research
IS - 20
ER -