Department of Genetics and Biochemistry and Institute of Nutraceutical Research, Clemson University, Clemson, SC, USA.
BMC Biotechnol. 2013 Apr 26;13:37. doi: 10.1186/1472-6750-13-37.
Recent research on nanoparticles in a number of crops has evidenced for enhanced germination and seedling growth, physiological activities including photosynthetic activity and nitrogen metabolism, mRNA expression and protein level, and also positive changes in gene expression indicating their potential use in crop improvement. We used a medicinally rich vegetable crop, bitter melon, as a model to evaluate the effects of seed treatment with a carbon-based nanoparticle, fullerol [C60(OH)20], on yield of plant biomass and fruit characters, and phytomedicine contents in fruits.
We confirmed the uptake, translocation and accumulation of fullerol through bright field imaging and Fourier transform infra-red spectroscopy. We observed varied effects of seed treatment at five concentrations, including non-consequential and positive, on plant biomass yield, fruit yield and its component characters, and content of five phytomedicines in fruits. Fullerol-treatment resulted in increases up to 54% in biomass yield and 24% in water content. Increases of up to 20% in fruit length, 59% in fruit number, and 70% in fruit weight led to an improvement up to 128% in fruit yield. Contents of two anticancer phytomedicines, cucurbitacin-B and lycopene, were enhanced up to 74% and 82%, respectively, and contents of two antidiabetic phytomedicines, charantin and insulin, were augmented up to 20% and 91%, respectively. Non-significant correlation inter se plant biomass, fruit yield, phytomedicine content and water content evidenced for separate genetic control and biosynthetic pathways for production of plant biomass, fruits, and phytomedicines in fruits, and also no impact of increased water uptake.
While our results indicated possibility of improving crop yield and quality by using proper concentrations of fullerol, extreme caution needs to be exercised given emerging knowledge about accumulation and toxicity of nanoparticles in bodily tissues.
最近在一些农作物中的纳米颗粒研究表明，其具有促进发芽和幼苗生长、生理活性（包括光合作用和氮代谢）、mRNA 表达和蛋白质水平的作用，同时基因表达的积极变化也表明它们在作物改良中的潜在用途。我们使用一种药用蔬菜苦瓜作为模型，评估了用富勒醇 [C60(OH)20] 对种子进行处理对植物生物量和果实特性以及果实中植物药含量的影响。
我们通过明场成像和傅里叶变换红外光谱证实了富勒醇的吸收、转运和积累。我们观察到五种浓度的种子处理有不同的效果，包括非连续的和积极的效果，对植物生物量产量、果实产量及其组成特征以及果实中五种植物药的含量有影响。富勒醇处理可使生物量产量增加高达 54%，水分含量增加高达 24%。果实长度增加高达 20%，果实数量增加高达 59%，果实重量增加高达 70%，导致果实产量提高高达 128%。两种抗癌植物药葫芦素-B 和番茄红素的含量分别提高了高达 74%和 82%，两种抗糖尿病植物药苦瓜苷和胰岛素的含量分别提高了高达 20%和 91%。植物生物量、果实产量、植物药含量和水分含量之间无显著相关性，表明植物生物量、果实、果实中植物药的产生具有单独的遗传控制和生物合成途径，也没有增加水分吸收的影响。
虽然我们的结果表明，通过使用适当浓度的富勒醇有可能提高作物的产量和质量，但鉴于关于纳米颗粒在身体组织中积累和毒性的新知识，需要格外小心。
