Stimulation of morphometric parameters and zinc content of native maize by priming with zinc oxide phytonanoparticles

Abstract

Nanotechnology has been a promising tool for the improvement of various crops of agricultural importance. Maize cultivation in Mexico is one of the most important activities of national interest. However, little attention has been given to the cultivation of native maize. Therefore, the objective of this work was to evaluate different treatments with ZnO-NPs on olotillo maize seeds to find out whether variations occurred on germination percentage, morphometric parameters, and zinc content. In this research, olotillo maize seeds were used, and three priming treatments were tested (nanopriming 3 h, nanopriming 3 h + hydropriming 24 h and nanopriming 24 h) with different concentrations of ZnO-NPs (0, 50, 100, 150 and 200 ppm). The parameters that were evaluated comprised germination percentage, vigor index, amylase activity, shoot and root length, and zinc content. It was observed that nanoparticles increase the percentage of germination in seeds as well as a beneficial effect on morphometric parameters, where the best treatment was nanopriming 3h + hydropriming 24 h at 50 and 100 ppm. As for zinc content in shoots and roots, the best treatment was nanopriming 24 h with 150 and 200 ppm. This indicated that ZnO-NPs in olotillo corn seeds can be an alternative for bio-fortifying this crop.