In this study, the arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus (G. mosseae) and endosymbiont (P. indica) colonized Zea mays were treated with calcium phosphate nanoparticles (CaPNPs) and evaluated for their plant growth promotion efficiency. It was observed that CaPNPs in combination with both G. mosseae and P. indica are more potent plant growth promoter than independent combinations of CaPNPs+G. mosseae, CaPNPs+P. indica or CaPNPs alone. The fluorimetric studies of treated plants revealed that CaPNPs alone and in combination with P. indica can enhance vitality of Zea mays by improving chlorophyll a content and performance index of treated plants. Hence, we conclude that CaPNPs exhibit synergistic growth promotion, root proliferation and vitality improvement properties along with endosymbiotic and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, which after further field trials can be developed as a cost-effective nanofertilizer with pronounced efficiency.
The present study reports the synthesis of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) using both biological and chemical routes to find out the best method for control of their size and activity. The fungal agent (Fusarium oxysporum) and the plant (Azadirachta indica) were found to be the best source for AgNPs synthesis. Both biosynthesis and chemosynthesis were achieved by challenging filtrate with AgNO3 (1 mM) solution. The synthesised nanoparticles were characterised by ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, nanoparticle tracking analysis (LM20), zeta potential measurement and transmission electron microscopy. The biologically synthesised nanoparticles were spherical, polydispersed and in the range of 10-40 nm, while chemically synthesised nanoparticles were highly monodispersed with a size of 5 nm. The antimicrobial assay against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus proved biogenic AgNPs to be more potent antibacterial agents than chemically synthesised AgNPs. The possible antibacterial mechanism of AgNPs has also been discussed. Biogenic AgNPs have shown more activity because of the protein capping and their mode of entry into the bacterial cell. These findings may encourage the use of biosynthesis over the chemosynthesis method.
Isolation of protoplasts from leaves is useful in plant research. The standard reference methods for isolation of protoplasts are tedious, cause cell damage, are low-yield, time consuming and prone to microbial contamination. To overcome this problem, the authors used silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) for the control of microbial contamination and with low concentration of enzyme mixture for rapid release of protoplasts. The leaf explants were sterilised with 95% ethanol for 30 s followed by biologically synthesised AgNPs (1, 5, 10 and 15 mg/l) for 10 to 20 min. The authors found that 10 mg/l concentration of AgNPs treatment on explants showed remarkable inhibitory effect on microbial contamination with high level of tolerance. Moreover, during protoplasts isolation, the addition of 10 mg/l AgNPs in leaf incubation buffer yielded 34% viable protoplasts in 3 h. This is the first report of AgNPs synthesis from waste plant medium, which was applied for the sterilisation of explants and rapid isolation of protoplasts.
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