Abstract
Sustainable use of nanotechnology in crop protection requires an understanding of the plant’s life cycle, potential toxicological impacts of nanomaterials and their mechanism of action against the target pathogens. Herein, we show some properties of a candidate antifungal nanocomposite made from copper oxide (CuO; otherwise an essential soil nutrient) nanoparticles (NPs), with definite size and shape, decorating the surface of reduced graphene oxide (rGO) nanosheets. The successful preparation of the rGO-CuO NPs was confirmed by spectroscopic and microscopic analyses, and its antifungal activity against wild strains of Fusarium oxysporum affecting tomato and pepper plants was successfully confirmed. A comparative analysis in vitro indicated that this nanocomposite had higher antifungal activity at only 1 mg/L than the conventional fungicide Kocide 2000 at 2.5 g/L. Further investigation suggested that rGO-CuO NPs creates pits and pores on the fungal cell membranes inducing cell death. In planta results indicated that only 1 mg/L from the nanocomposite is required to reduce Fusarium wilt and root rot diseases severity below 5% for tomato and pepper plants without any phytotoxicity for about 70 days. Comparatively, 2.5 g/L of Kocide 2000 are required to achieve about 30% disease reduction in both plants. The present study contributes to the concept of agro-nanotechnology, showing the properties of a novel ecofriendly and economic nanopesticide for sustainable plant protection.
Highlights
Fusarium wilt disease is a major challenge for vegetable production worldwide [1,2]
We further investigated the antifungal activity of reduced graphene oxide (rGO)-CuO NPs by TEM analysis
RGO-CuO NPs at either 1 or 100 mg/L did not produce any apparent phytotoxicity. These results indicated that rGO-CuO NPs, at the very low concentration of 1 mg/L, exhibit better antifungal activity than the chemical fungicide Kocide
Summary
Fusarium wilt disease is a major challenge for vegetable production worldwide [1,2]. The disease caused by the pathogenic fungus Fusarium oxysporum is characterized by a deadly vascular wilt syndrome in solanaceous plants [3]. The fungus F. oxysporum is one of the most destructive soil-borne fungi that infect crops, tomato, eggplant, pepper, and potato, because it has the potential to survive in the soil for more than two decades. Over one hundred and twenty different strains or formae speciales of F. oxysporum have been described so far, each one highly specific to a particular host in which it causes disease [4]. Capsici (FOC) cause Fusarium wilt in tomato and pepper plants, respectively. F. oxysporum f. sp. radicis lycopersici (FORL) causes root rot disease, one of the most widespread fungal diseases in most African and Asian Mediterranean countries [5]
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