Document Type : Original Article
Authors
1
Botany Department, Faculty of Women for Arts, Science and Education, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt
2
Botany Department, Faculty of Women for Arts, Science and Education, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt.
3
Agriculture Genetic Engineering Research Institute (AGERI), Agricultural Research Center, Giza, Egypt.
Abstract
Melatonin (MEL) plays important roles in various plant physiology, particularly regulation of plant growth, development, and metabolism. The present study was carried out on Ocimum basilicum L. plant growing in a half-strength Murashige and Skoog media supplemented with 5, 10, 20, and 30 µM MEL-CS nanoparticles (NPs). After four weeks, growing O. basilicum plants were harvested for measuring the changes in growth, physiological, and biochemical attributes. Our results revealed that MEL-CS nanoparticles treatment markedly increased the shoot, and root’s length, fresh, and dry weight, photosynthetic pigments, carbohydrates fractions, total soluble proteins, free amino acids, and antioxidant enzymes activities (CAT, SOD, POD, and PPO). However, the accumulation of the superoxide radical (O₂•−), hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), as well as malonaldehyde (MDA) reduced in basil leaves. The most efficient treatment was 10 µM MEL-CS nanoparticles. At the same time, the concentration of 30 µM was the lowest effective compared to untreated control, normal MEL, and CS treatments. The positive results of current study proved the effective role of MEL-CS nanoparticles in improving plant growth, the measured metabolites, and thereby reducing the oxidative stress (O₂•−, H2O2, and MDA) through stimulating the antioxidant defense system.
Keywords
)
View on SCiNiTO