Study on green synthesis of silica nanoparticles and its effect on drought tolerance and growth in finger millet
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Date
2022-09
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G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar, District Udham Singh Nagar, Uttarakhand. PIN - 263145
Abstract
Drought is one of the major abiotic stresses that impairs the growth and productivity of finger millet, a crop of high nutritional value and socio-economic importance. Green synthesis of silica nanoparticles was carried out using leaf extract of Thuja orientalis plant and characterized using standard characterization techniques like FE-SEM, FT-IR, XRD etc. Nanoparticles appeared irregular in shape, amorphous in nature and approximately 78 nm in size. A pot based experiment was conducted to study the effect of silica nanoparticles at three different concentrations (50 ppm, 100 ppm and 200 ppm) on drought tolerance and growth of PES-400, a drought sensitive variety of finger millet. Nanoparticles were applied on drought stressed finger millet via two modes (i) foliar spray and (ii) watering. Morpho-physiological and biochemical responses of finger millet were recorded at vegetative stage after four times treatment with silica nanoparticles at defined concentration and time. Morpho-physiological features like plant height, root length, number of leaves per plant, leaf area, relative water content, total chlorophyll and carotenoid content and biochemical components like free proline, ascorbate, total soluble sugars, total free amino acids, total phenolics and flavonoid content significantly improved with treatment of 50 ppm and 100 ppm of silica nanoparticles as compared to drought stressed plants. A decrease in malondialdehyde content was observed. Specific activity of ROS scavenging enzymes like superoxide dismutase, ascorbate peroxidase, guaiacol peroxidase and glutathione
reductase also improved on application of silica nanoparticles. No significant improvement was observed on treatment with 200 ppm silica nanoparticles. Both modes of application (foliar spray and watering) were observed to have similar effects. Thus, it was concluded that silica nanoparticles had a role in mitigating drought stress and improving growth in PES – 400 and can be recommended for providing drought tolerance in crops at 50 to 100 ppm concentrations.