Effect of green synthesized silver nanoparticles on growth and physiological responses of pearl millet under salinity stress

Zakir Ullah (), Syed Inzimam Ul Haq (), Abd Ullah (), Muhammad Ahsan Asghar (), Mahmoud F. Seleiman (), Khansa Saleem (), Fanjiang Zeng (), Noor Us Sama (), Khalid Kamran () and Sheraz Ahmad ()
Additional contact information
Zakir Ullah: Islamia College Peshawar
Syed Inzimam Ul Haq: Islamia College Peshawar
Abd Ullah: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Muhammad Ahsan Asghar: ELKH, Agricultural Institute
Mahmoud F. Seleiman: King Saud University
Khansa Saleem: The Islamia University of Bahawalpur
Fanjiang Zeng: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Noor Us Sama: University of Peshawar
Khalid Kamran: PMAS-Arid Agriculture University Rawalpindi Islamabad
Sheraz Ahmad: Qurtuba University of Science and Information Technology

Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, 2025, vol. 27, issue 1, No 20, 625-644

Abstract: Abstract Agricultural production and food security are hindered by abiotic stress in plants. Consequently, novel approaches are needed to overcome these problems and achieve sustainability. Crop production has been demonstrated to be improved by nanoparticles under several biotic and abiotic stress conditions. This experiment examined the effect of different concentrations of green synthesized silver nanoparticles AgNPs (15, 25, 35, 45, and 55 ppm) on the growth and physiological responses of pearl millet subjected to NaCl stress levels (50, 75, 100, 125, and 150 mM); (3) Results: In the current research, the NaCl stress levels significantly reduced the growth metrics (shoot length, root length, shoot fresh and dry weight, and root fresh and dry weight) chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b and soluble protein, compared to control. Contrary to this, all stress levels induced an increase in osmolytes (soluble sugars and proline) and antioxidant enzymes including superoxide dismutase, catalase, and ascorbate peroxidase. It is likely that the diminished growth metrics of NaCl-treated seedlings are due to the increased effort put forth in osmotic adjustment and antioxidant defense mechanisms to counteract reactive oxygen species and oxidative stress. The foliar spray of AgNPs, however, further enhanced osmotic and O2--H2O2 scavenging mechanisms in NaCl stressed seedlings to reduce the oxidative stress damages, resulting in improved growth. Overall, AgNPs application improved the growth metric, chlorophyll pigments, osmolytes, and antioxidant mechanism of salt-stressed seedlings in a dose-additive manner. However, further testing of AgNPs is required with pearl millet and other cereals in the field to validate these results.

Keywords: Antioxidant mechanism; Ecological sustainability; Physiological responses; Salinity; Silver nanoparticles (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10668-024-05453-0 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:endesu:v:27:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1007_s10668-024-05453-0

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/10668

DOI: 10.1007/s10668-024-05453-0

Access Statistics for this article

Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development is currently edited by Luc Hens

More articles in Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().