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Functional Plant Biology Functional Plant Biology Society
Plant function and evolutionary biology
RESEARCH ARTICLE

Alleviation of salinity stress in zinc oxide nanoparticle-treated Lagenaria siceraria L. by modulation of physiochemical attributes, enzymatic and non-enzymatic antioxidative system

Ayesha Javeed A , Shakil Ahmed A and Rehana Sardar https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1422-422X A *
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A Institute of Botany, University of the Punjab, Lahore 54590, Pakistan.

* Correspondence to: rehana.phd.botany@pu.edu.pk

Handling Editor: Honghong Wu

Functional Plant Biology 50(11) 941-954 https://doi.org/10.1071/FP23069
Submitted: 15 March 2023  Accepted: 3 October 2023   Published: 25 October 2023

© 2023 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing

Abstract

Salt stress is a major abiotic stress that affects the world’s agricultural soils and crop yield, the system that ensures food production. In the present study, three different concentrations of zinc oxide nanoparticles (250, 500 and 750 ZnO NPs mg L−1) were applied by soil drenching. The treatments aimed to improve the phytochemical characteristics of Lagenaria siceraria L. (bottle gourd) by lowering the oxidative stress brought on by salinity stress (200 ppm NaF). Green synthesised ZnO NPs were prepared, having hexagonal and spherical shapes and sizes 16–35 nm. Salt stress reduced fresh and dry biomass of plants and improved production of proline. ZnO NPs improved antioxidant response by enhancing catalase, ascorbate peroxidase, superoxide dismutase and peroxidase activities, and protecting cellular structures by eliminating free radicals and reactive oxygen species. The 500 mg L−1 ZnO NPs treatment improved total chlorophyll (31%), total soluble sugars (23%) and maintained the gas exchange parameters under salt stress. This treatment also enhanced the biosynthesis of osmotic regulators (proline) by 19%, Na+ by 22% and Zn2+ by 17%, assisting mitigation of salt stress-mediated toxicity in plants. This study demonstrates that ZnO NP-treated seedlings show improved growth attributes, suggesting that ZnO NPs could be advantageous for L. siceraria cultivation in salt polluted areas and could be utilised in place of conventional Zn fertiliser for better crop yield.

Keywords: antioxidant activity, growth, L. siceraria, nutrient content, photosynthetic pigment, proline, salinity stress, ZnO NPs.

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