The Effect of ZnO Nanoparticles on Arabidopsis Growth in Elevated CO2

Overview

The increasing greenhouse gas emissions causing climate change have been observed to deplete the nutrient content of crops, which can impact global malnutrition. Zinc is one of the plant micronutrients most threatened by elevated atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2). Zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles were investigated as a potential means of biofortifying plants against the effects of climate change. ZnO nanoparticle treatments were hypothesized to increase plant biomass, a relative indicator of zinc content, although only to a certain point, as micronutrients can become harmful at higher concentrations. Arabidopsis thaliana plants were grown in ambient and elevated CO2. Each trial contained 10 groups of 25 plants that were either soaked as seeds, or watered during growth, a novel technique, with a solution of ZnO nanoparticles at concentrations of 0.0 mg/L (control), 0.5 mg/L, 1.0 mg/L, 5.0 mg/L, or 10.0 mg/L. After three weeks, the dry biomass was measured. The 5.0 mg/Lsoaking treatment yielded the highest mean biomass in ambient and elevated CO2 (p = 0.001 compared to control). 5.0 mg/Lwas also more effective than all watering treatments (p = 0.001). The data suggest that, for A. thaliana, soaking the seeds in the ZnO nanoparticle solutions before planting was a superior treatment to repeated watering with the solutions during growth. Effectively increasing biomass in ambient and elevated CO2 conditions, ZnO nanoparticles may be a viable strategy to combat zinc loss and increase crop yield in climate change.

Competition history

• JSHS 2022 Category not listed

Resources

• National JSHS abstract book ↗

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