Developmental and reproductive effects of iron oxide nanoparticles in arabidopsis thaliana

Sergey Bombin, Mitchell LeFebvre, Jennifer Sherwood, Yaolin Xu, Yuping Bao, Katrina M. Ramonell

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

57 Scopus citations

Abstract

Increasing use of iron oxide nanoparticles in medicine and environmental remediation has led to concerns regarding exposure of these nanoparticles to the public. However, limited studies are available to evaluate their effects on the environment, in particular on plants and food crops. Here, we investigated the effects of positive (PC) and negative (NC) charged iron oxide (Fe2O3) nanoparticles (IONPs) on the physiology and reproductive capacity of Arabidopsis thaliana at concentrations of 3 and 25 mg/L. The 3 mg/L treated plants did not show evident effects on seeding and root length. However, the 25 mg/L treatment resulted in reduced seedling (positive-20% and negative-3.6%) and root (positive-48% and negative-negligible) length. Interestingly, treatment with polyethylenimine (PEI; IONP-PC coating) also resulted in reduced root length (39%) but no change was observed with polyacrylic acid (PAA; IONP-NC coating) treatment alone. However, treatment with IONPs at 3 mg/L did lead to an almost 5% increase in aborted pollen, a 2%–6% reduction in pollen viability and up to an 11% reduction in seed yield depending on the number of treatments. Interestingly, the treated plants did not show any observable phenotypic changes in overall size or general plant structure, indicating that environmental nanoparticle contamination could go dangerously unnoticed.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)24174-24193
Number of pages20
JournalInternational journal of molecular sciences
Volume16
Issue number10
DOIs
StatePublished - Oct 13 2015
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Arabidopsis thaliana
  • Iron oxide
  • Nanoparticle
  • Phytotoxicity
  • Plant development
  • Pollen viability
  • Seed yield

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Catalysis
  • Molecular Biology
  • Spectroscopy
  • Computer Science Applications
  • Physical and Theoretical Chemistry
  • Organic Chemistry
  • Inorganic Chemistry

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