Cadmium telluride quantum dots application impaired seedling growth and leaf protoplasts of bread wheat

Abstract

Nowadays more quantum dots are released into the environment due to large-scale use of artificial nanomaterials (NPs); and plants are considered to be one of many organisms directly affected by NPs. This study was conducted to evaluate the effects of cadmium telluride quantum dots (CdTe QDs), a common form of NPs, on wheat seedlings growth and mesophyll protoplasts. For this, six CdTe QDs dose gradients i.e., 0, 50, 100, 200, 500 and 1000 mg/L were applied on wheat seedlings and mesophyll protoplasts. Results revealed that CdTe QDs application inhibited shoot and root length and higher concentrations proved more toxic. For instance, shoot and root lengths of wheat seedlings observed 85.5 and 85.7% decline at 1000 mg/L concentration. Moreover, the CdTe QDs also caused a decrease in soluble sugar contents (88.5 and 93.1% reduction, respectively in shoots and roots at 1000 mg/L) along with an increase in the malondialdehyde (MDA) contents in shoots and roots of wheat seedlings (187.2 and 468.7% increase, respectively in shoots and roots at 1000 mg/L). Nonetheless, the total protein contents of mesophyll protoplast of wheat seedlings decreased with increasing concentration of CdTe QDs. However, protein types in protoplast of wheat seedlings were increased with increasing concentration of applied CdTe QDs. In conclusion, CdTe QDs application impaired wheat growth due to decrease is soluble sugars along with elevated MDA contents. Moreover, CdTe QDs treatments reduced the total protein contents while increased proetin types in mesophyll protoplast of wheat seedlings.