Physiological and biochemical responses of wheat to synergistic effects of selenium nanoparticles and elevated CO2 conditions

Emad A Alsherif; Dina Hajjar; Mohammad Aldilami; Hamada AbdElgawad

doi:10.3389/fpls.2023.1183185

Physiological and biochemical responses of wheat to synergistic effects of selenium nanoparticles and elevated CO₂ conditions

Front Plant Sci. 2023 Jul 13:14:1183185. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2023.1183185. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Emad A Alsherif¹, Dina Hajjar², Mohammad Aldilami¹, Hamada AbdElgawad³

Affiliations

¹ Biology Department, College of Science and Arts at Khulis, University of Jeddah, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
² Department of Biochemistry, College of Science, University of Jeddah, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
³ Integrated Molecular Plant Physiology Research, Department of Biology, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium.

Abstract

Elevating CO₂ (eCO₂) levels will change behavior and the effect of soil fertilizers and nutrients. Selenium NPs (SeNPs) have arisen as an alternative to conventional Se fertilizers to enrich crops. However, it remains unclear whether eCO₂ will change the biological effects of soil SeNPs on plant growth and metabolism. The current study aimed to shed new light on the interactive impacts of eCO₂ and SeNPs on wheat plants. Accordingly, the attempts were to reveal whether the application of SeNPs can modulate the eCO₂ effects on wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) physiological and biochemical traits. With this goal, a pot experiment was carried out where the seeds were primed with SeNPs and plants were grown under two levels of CO₂ concentrations (ambient CO₂ (aCO₂, 410 μmol CO₂ mol^-1; and eCO₂ (710 μmol CO₂ mol^-1)) during six weeks after sowing. Although SeNPs+eCO₂ treatment resulted in the highest accumulation of photosynthetic pigment content in leaves (+49-118% higher than control), strong evidence of the positive impacts on Rubisco activity (~+23%), and stomatal conductance (~+37%) was observed only under eCO₂, which resulted in an improvement in photosynthesis capacity (+42%). When photosynthesis parameters were stimulated with eCO₂, a significant improvement in dry matter production was detected, in particular under SeNPs+eCO₂ which was 1.8 times higher than control under aCO₂. The highest content of antioxidant enzymes, molecules, and metabolites was also recorded in SeNPs+eCO₂, which might be associated with the nearly 50% increase in sodium content in shoots at the same treatment. Taken together, this is the first research documenting the effective synergistic impacts of eCO₂ and SeNPs on the mentioned metabolites, antioxidants, and some photosynthetic parameters, an advantageous consequence that was not recorded in the individual application of these treatments, at least not as broadly as with the combined treatment.

Keywords: antioxidant; elevated CO2; metabolite; selenium nanoparticles; wheat.