Mitigation mechanism of zinc oxide nanoparticles on cadmium toxicity in tomato

作者：Liangliang Sun, Ruting Wang, Qiong Ju, Menglu Xing, Ruishan Li, Weimin Li, Wen Li, Wenying Wang, Yanfang Deng, Jin Xu · 发表于：Frontiers in Plant Science · 年份：2023 · DOI：10.3389/fpls.2023.1162372 · 被引用次数：38 · 研究领域：Plant Stress Responses and Tolerance、Heavy metals in environment、Plant responses to elevated CO2

Cadmium (Cd) pollution seriously reduces the yield and quality of vegetables. Reducing Cd accumulation in vegetables is of great significance for improving food safety and sustainable agricultural development. Here, using tomato as the material, we analyzed the effect of foliar spraying with zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) on Cd accumulation and tolerance in tomato seedlings. Foliar spraying with ZnO NPs improved Cd tolerance by increasing photosynthesis efficiency and antioxidative capacity, while it reduced Cd accumulation by 40.2% in roots and 34.5% in leaves but increased Zn content by 33.9% in roots and 78.6% in leaves. Foliar spraying with ZnO NPs also increased the contents of copper (Cu) and manganese (Mn) in the leaves of Cd-treated tomato seedlings. Subsequent metabonomic analysis showed that ZnO NPs exposure alleviated the fluctuation of metabolic profiling in response to Cd toxicity, and it had a more prominent effect in leaves than in roots. Correlation analysis revealed that several differentially accumulated metabolites were positively or negatively correlated with the growth parameters and physiol-biochemical indexes. We also found that flavonoids and alkaloid metabolites may play an important role in ZnO NP-alleviated Cd toxicity in tomato seedlings. Taken together, the results of this study indicated that foliar spraying with ZnO NPs effectively reduced Cd accumulation in tomato seedlings; moreover, it also reduced oxidative damage, improved the absorptio...