Cytotoxic, Genotoxic, and Polymorphism Effects on Vanilla planifolia Jacks ex Andrews after Long-Term Exposure to Argovit® Silver Nanoparticles

Abstract

Worldwide demands of Vanilla planifolia lead to finding new options to produce large-scale and contaminant-free crops. Particularly, the Mexican Government has classified Vanilla planifolia at risk and it subject to protection programs since wild species are in danger of extinction and no more than 30 clones have been found. Nanotechnology could help to solve both demands and genetic variability, but toxicological concerns must be solved. In this work, we present the first study of the cytotoxic and genotoxic effects promoted by AgNPs in Vanilla planifolia plantlets after a very long exposure time of six weeks. Our results show that Vanilla planifolia plantlets growth with doses of 25 and 50 mg/L is favored with a small decrease in the mitotic index. A dose-dependency in the frequency of cells with chromosomal aberrations and micronuclei was found. However, genotoxic effects could be considered as minimum due to with the highest concentration employed (200 mg/L), the total percentage of chromatic aberrations is lower than 5% with only three micronuclei in 3000 cells, despite the long-time exposure to AgNP. Therefore, 25 and 50 mg/L (1.5 and 3 mg/L of metallic silver) were identified as safe concentrations for Vanilla planifolia growth on in vitro conditions. Exposure of plantlets to AgNPs increase the polymorphism registered by inter-simple sequence repeat method (ISSR), which could be useful to promote the genetic variability of this species.

Argovit™ silver nanoparticles reduce contamination levels and improve morphological growth in the in vitro culture of Psidium friedrichsthalianum (O. Berg) Nied.

“…On the other hand, this is the first time that AgNPs was used for the sterilization of culture medium for in vitro culture of Cas. Argovit™ AgNPs was shown to be an excellent option to reduce in vitro contamination with fungi and bacteria proceeded from both the environment and plant tissues, without cytotoxic or genotoxic effects for specimens exposed for prolonged periods [23,25]. Here, we showed the effectiveness of the same formulation on woody plant species.…”

“…Argovit™ silver nanoparticles were provided by Scientific-Production Centre Vector-Vita Ltd (Novosibirsk, Russia, http://vecto r-vita.com/) as commercially manufactured product. Argovit™ formulation is a water highly dispersed AgNPs suspension at an overall concentration of 200 mg/mL, with 18.8% polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP), 1.2% of metallic silver [25]. Characterization of Argovit™ AgNPs is showed in Table 1, as previously reported [34].…”

“…Application of this AgNPs formulation in other crops has produced good results. In vanilla and sugar cane, besides the disinfection activity, a hormetic effect modulated by ROS overproduction induced by AgNPs was observed [23][24][25]. As far as we know, this effect has not been reported for AgNPs on woody plants.…”

“…In the in vitro culture of vanilla (Vanilla planifolia), Argovit™ nanoparticles reduced in vitro contamination, enhanced shoot multiplication and increased total phenolic content [24]. The use of Argovit™ silver nanoparticles on Vanilla planifolia did not show cytotoxic and genotoxic effects after prolonged exposure (6 weeks) [25]. Silver nanoparticles have also been used to foster plant growth and yield, improve seed germination, enable plant genetic modification, improve bioactive compound production and achieve plant protection [26,27].…”

Evaluation of different antioxidants during in vitro establishment of allspice (Pimenta dioica L. Merrill): a recalcitrant species

“…However, the addition of AgNPs increased the content of cell wall-linked phenols at the highest evaluated concentration, due to possible toxic damage caused by an excess in the Ag+ ion in the culture medium. Toxicity at high concentrations of AgNPs has been reported by Bello-Bello et al [41,42] in sugar cane (Saccharum spp.) and vanilla (Vanilla planifolia Jacks.…”