Absorption and translocation to the aerial part of magnetic carbon-coated nanoparticles through the root of different crop plants

Abstract

The development of nanodevices for agriculture and plant research will allow several new applications, ranging from treatments with agrochemicals to delivery of nucleic acids for genetic transformation. But a long way for research is still in front of us until such nanodevices could be widely used. Their behaviour inside the plants is not yet well known and the putative toxic effects for both, the plants directly exposed and/or the animals and humans, if the nanodevices reach the food chain, remain uncertain. In this work we show that magnetic carbon-coated nanoparticles forming a biocompatible magnetic fluid (bioferrofluid) can easily penetrate through the root in four different crop plants (pea, sunflower, tomato and wheat). They reach the vascular cylinder, move using the transpiration stream in the xylem vessels and spread through the aerial part of the plants in less than 24 hours. Accumulation of nanoparticles was detected in wheat leaf trichomes, suggesting a way for excretion/detoxification. This kind of studies is of great interest in order to unveil the movement and accumulation of nanoparticles in plant tissues for assessing further applications in the field or laboratory.

Soybean susceptibility to manufactured nanomaterials with evidence for food quality and soil fertility interruption

“…Previous soil-grown soybean studies regarded metal salts (33,35), but studies examining plant-MNM interactions generally used aqueous exposure systems (24,(36)(37)(38). There has been contradictory evidence from studying soil microbial communities, i.e., that some MNMs are not bioavailable in soil (39), but also evidence to the contrary for other MNMs (25).…”

Interactions between engineered nanomaterials and agricultural crops: implications for food safety

“…Notably, the structural integrity of plasmodesmata is maintained by cytoskeleton microfilaments and certain ENMs (ultrasmall TiO 2 nanoparticles) have been reported to disrupt such microtubular networks in Arabidopsis thaliana (Wang S. et al, 2011;Larue et al, 2012a). Additionally, Rab proteins were hypothesized to have a role directing "cargo" to specific areas near plasmodesmata locations (Cifuentes et al, 2010). As a result, the transportation of ENMs may be facilitated through the normal and coordinated activity of organelles, transport proteins and trans-wall channels.…”

“…Upon accumulation, particle distribution via the vasculature (Fig. 1c) could occur rapidly; ENMs were detected in shoots as short as 24 h after carbon-coated magentic nanoparticle exposure to Helianthus annuus (sunflower), Lycopersicum sculentum (tomato), Pisum sativum (pea) and Triticum aestivum (wheat) (Cifuentes et al, 2010). An in vivo plant flow cytometry assessment showed that the average velocity of linear flow in Lycopersicum sculentum stems exposed to quantum dot-carbon nanotube conjugates was approximately 0.2 mm/s .…”

“…For seed germination and seedling growth assays less than 7 d, ENMs exposure solutions are typically prepared in water (Lin and Xing, 2007;Cifuentes et al, 2010;Lopez-Moreno et al, 2010a;Klancnik et al, 2011;Wang S. et al, 2011;Larue et al, 2012a). For hydroponic seedling growth assays with exposure intervals exceeding 7 d, ENMs were more commonly suspended in nutrient media such as Hoagland's solution (Stampoulis et al, 2009;Castiglione et al, 2011;Musante and White, 2012;Wang et al, 2012).…”

Enhancement of iron content in spinach plants stimulated by magnetic nano particles

“…Green vegetable samples shows that the iron content in the green vegetables was increased. Cifuentes et al (2010) studied absorption and translocation on the root of the plants by nano particles of iron sands [6]. Stimulation of magnetic nano particles were also performed on Tobacco BY-2 cells, which results that the magnetic nano particles stimulated affect in antioxidant elements contained in Tobacco BY-2 cells [7].…”