Impact of aluminum and zinc oxides on morphological characters, germination, metals accumulation and DNA in fenugreek (Trigonella foenum-graecum)

Abstract

Abstract Metal nanoparticles (NPs) have several prospective technical implementations; it hassled the issue of unidentified environmental impacts from their release. Zinc and aluminum oxides have been used in numerous sectors including industrial and agriculture products. The present study deals with the impact of various levels (0, 125, 250, 500, and 1000 mg kg−1) of zinc and aluminum oxides NPs on seed germination and seedling growth for both varieties (Qassimi and Yemeni) of fenugreek. The untreated plants were used as a control. Results showed that a severe decline in germination percentage occurred at higher concentrations of ZnO and Al2O3 NPs (1000 mg L−1). Radicle and plumule growth rates for both verities treated with ZnO and Al2O3 NPs inhibited significantly (p > 0.05) by increasing the concentrations of NPs. Moreover, dry and fresh weights of root and shoot of both varieties progressively reduced with increasing NPs concentration. The average accumulation of Zn content ranged from 61 to 334 and 63 to 358 mg kg−1 for root and shoot of Qassimi and Yemeni variety, respectively. The average accumulation of Al varied from 47 to 319 and 46 to 334 mg kg−1 for root and shoot of Qassimi and Yemeni variety, respectively. The translocation factor (TF) ranged from 0.98 to 1.26 for Zn, and from 0.91 to 1.32 for Al. Also, genetic diversity was assessed in fenugreek (Qassimi and Yemeni) by using Strat Codon Targeted (SCoT) markers. High levels of polymorphism have been detected, suggesting that these markers are valuable tools for detecting genetic variation. The finding confirmed that the genetic variation was greater in plants exposed to high levels of nano ZnO and Al2O3 compared to control. In conclusion, the tested metal nano oxides possess an inhibitory effect on plant growth, metal uptake, and genetic variation by both varieties of fenugreek. Such findings significantly improve our knowledge of environmental safety after release to metal oxide nanoparticles.