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Facile Coating of Urea With Low-Dose ZnO Nanoparticles Promotes Wheat Performance and Enhances Zn Uptake Under Drought Stress

Zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO-NPs) hold promise as novel fertilizer nutrients for crops. However, their ultra-small size could hinder large-scale field application due to potential for drift, untimely dissolution or aggregation. In this study, urea was coated with ZnO-NPs (1%) or bulk ZnO (2%) and e...

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Autores principales: Dimkpa, Christian O., Andrews, Joshua, Fugice, Job, Singh, Upendra, Bindraban, Prem S., Elmer, Wade H., Gardea-Torresdey, Jorge L., White, Jason C.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7055539/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32174943
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2020.00168
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author Dimkpa, Christian O.
Andrews, Joshua
Fugice, Job
Singh, Upendra
Bindraban, Prem S.
Elmer, Wade H.
Gardea-Torresdey, Jorge L.
White, Jason C.
author_facet Dimkpa, Christian O.
Andrews, Joshua
Fugice, Job
Singh, Upendra
Bindraban, Prem S.
Elmer, Wade H.
Gardea-Torresdey, Jorge L.
White, Jason C.
author_sort Dimkpa, Christian O.
collection PubMed
description Zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO-NPs) hold promise as novel fertilizer nutrients for crops. However, their ultra-small size could hinder large-scale field application due to potential for drift, untimely dissolution or aggregation. In this study, urea was coated with ZnO-NPs (1%) or bulk ZnO (2%) and evaluated in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) in a greenhouse, under drought (40% field moisture capacity; FMC) and non-drought (80% FMC) conditions, in comparison with urea not coated with ZnO (control), and urea with separate ZnO-NP (1%) or bulk ZnO (2%) amendment. Plants were exposed to ≤ 2.17 mg/kg ZnO-NPs and ≤ 4.34 mg/kg bulk-ZnO, indicating exposure to a higher rate of Zn from the bulk ZnO. ZnO-NPs and bulk-ZnO showed similar urea coating efficiencies of 74–75%. Drought significantly (p ≤ 0.05) increased time to panicle initiation, reduced grain yield, and inhibited uptake of Zn, nitrogen (N), and phosphorus (P). Under drought, ZnO-NPs significantly reduced average time to panicle initiation by 5 days, irrespective of coating, and relative to the control. In contrast, bulk ZnO did not affect time to panicle initiation. Compared to the control, grain yield increased significantly, 51 or 39%, with ZnO-NP-coated or uncoated urea. Yield increases from bulk-ZnO-coated or uncoated urea were insignificant, compared to both the control and the ZnO-NP treatments. Plant uptake of Zn increased by 24 or 8% with coated or uncoated ZnO-NPs; and by 78 or 10% with coated or uncoated bulk-ZnO. Under non-drought conditions, Zn treatment did not significantly reduce panicle initiation time, except with uncoated bulk-ZnO. Relative to the control, ZnO-NPs (irrespective of coating) significantly increased grain yield; and coated ZnO-NPs enhanced Zn uptake significantly. Zn fertilization did not significantly affect N and P uptake, regardless of particle size or coating. Collectively, these findings demonstrate that coating urea with ZnO-NPs enhances plant performance and Zn accumulation, thus potentiating field-scale deployment of nano-scale micronutrients. Notably, lower Zn inputs from ZnO-NPs enhanced crop productivity, comparable to higher inputs from bulk-ZnO. This highlights a key benefit of nanofertilizers: a reduction of nutrient inputs into agriculture without yield penalities.
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spelling pubmed-70555392020-03-13 Facile Coating of Urea With Low-Dose ZnO Nanoparticles Promotes Wheat Performance and Enhances Zn Uptake Under Drought Stress Dimkpa, Christian O. Andrews, Joshua Fugice, Job Singh, Upendra Bindraban, Prem S. Elmer, Wade H. Gardea-Torresdey, Jorge L. White, Jason C. Front Plant Sci Plant Science Zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO-NPs) hold promise as novel fertilizer nutrients for crops. However, their ultra-small size could hinder large-scale field application due to potential for drift, untimely dissolution or aggregation. In this study, urea was coated with ZnO-NPs (1%) or bulk ZnO (2%) and evaluated in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) in a greenhouse, under drought (40% field moisture capacity; FMC) and non-drought (80% FMC) conditions, in comparison with urea not coated with ZnO (control), and urea with separate ZnO-NP (1%) or bulk ZnO (2%) amendment. Plants were exposed to ≤ 2.17 mg/kg ZnO-NPs and ≤ 4.34 mg/kg bulk-ZnO, indicating exposure to a higher rate of Zn from the bulk ZnO. ZnO-NPs and bulk-ZnO showed similar urea coating efficiencies of 74–75%. Drought significantly (p ≤ 0.05) increased time to panicle initiation, reduced grain yield, and inhibited uptake of Zn, nitrogen (N), and phosphorus (P). Under drought, ZnO-NPs significantly reduced average time to panicle initiation by 5 days, irrespective of coating, and relative to the control. In contrast, bulk ZnO did not affect time to panicle initiation. Compared to the control, grain yield increased significantly, 51 or 39%, with ZnO-NP-coated or uncoated urea. Yield increases from bulk-ZnO-coated or uncoated urea were insignificant, compared to both the control and the ZnO-NP treatments. Plant uptake of Zn increased by 24 or 8% with coated or uncoated ZnO-NPs; and by 78 or 10% with coated or uncoated bulk-ZnO. Under non-drought conditions, Zn treatment did not significantly reduce panicle initiation time, except with uncoated bulk-ZnO. Relative to the control, ZnO-NPs (irrespective of coating) significantly increased grain yield; and coated ZnO-NPs enhanced Zn uptake significantly. Zn fertilization did not significantly affect N and P uptake, regardless of particle size or coating. Collectively, these findings demonstrate that coating urea with ZnO-NPs enhances plant performance and Zn accumulation, thus potentiating field-scale deployment of nano-scale micronutrients. Notably, lower Zn inputs from ZnO-NPs enhanced crop productivity, comparable to higher inputs from bulk-ZnO. This highlights a key benefit of nanofertilizers: a reduction of nutrient inputs into agriculture without yield penalities. Frontiers Media S.A. 2020-02-26 /pmc/articles/PMC7055539/ /pubmed/32174943 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2020.00168 Text en Copyright © 2020 Dimkpa, Andrews, Fugice, Singh, Bindraban, Elmer, Gardea-Torresdey and White http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Plant Science
Dimkpa, Christian O.
Andrews, Joshua
Fugice, Job
Singh, Upendra
Bindraban, Prem S.
Elmer, Wade H.
Gardea-Torresdey, Jorge L.
White, Jason C.
Facile Coating of Urea With Low-Dose ZnO Nanoparticles Promotes Wheat Performance and Enhances Zn Uptake Under Drought Stress
title Facile Coating of Urea With Low-Dose ZnO Nanoparticles Promotes Wheat Performance and Enhances Zn Uptake Under Drought Stress
title_full Facile Coating of Urea With Low-Dose ZnO Nanoparticles Promotes Wheat Performance and Enhances Zn Uptake Under Drought Stress
title_fullStr Facile Coating of Urea With Low-Dose ZnO Nanoparticles Promotes Wheat Performance and Enhances Zn Uptake Under Drought Stress
title_full_unstemmed Facile Coating of Urea With Low-Dose ZnO Nanoparticles Promotes Wheat Performance and Enhances Zn Uptake Under Drought Stress
title_short Facile Coating of Urea With Low-Dose ZnO Nanoparticles Promotes Wheat Performance and Enhances Zn Uptake Under Drought Stress
title_sort facile coating of urea with low-dose zno nanoparticles promotes wheat performance and enhances zn uptake under drought stress
topic Plant Science
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7055539/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32174943
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2020.00168
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