Surface modified ZnO NPs by betaine and proline build up tomato plants against drought stress and increase fruit nutritional quality

Abstract

Drought stress is a serious challenge for global food production. Nanofertilizers and nanocomposites cope with such environmental stresses and also increase nutritional contents of fruits. An in vitro experiment was designed to use Zinc Oxide Nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) primed with Proline and Betaine (ZnOP and ZnOBt NPs) at 50 and 100 mg/kg soil against drought stress in Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) plants. Plant morphological, biochemical, and fruit nutritional quality were accessed. Maximum plant height was observed under the treatment of ZnOP50 (1.09 m) and ZnO 100 (1.06 m). ZnOP and ZnOBt also improved the chlorophyll content up to 86% and 87.16%, respectively. Application of ZnOP NPs also demonstrated maximum tomato yield (204 g tomato/plant) followed by ZnO NPs and ZnOBt NPs. Nanocomposites decreased phenolics and flavonoids contents in drought stressed plants demonstrating the mitigation of oxidative stress. Nanofertilizer also increased the concentration of phenolics and flavonoids in fruits that increased the nutritional contents. Furthermore a significant accumulation of betaine, proline, and lycopene in fruits on nanocomposite treatment made it nutritional and healthy. Lycopene content increased up to 2.01% and 1.23% in presence of ZnOP50 and ZnOP100, respectively. These outcomes validate that drought stress in plant can be reduced by accumulation of different phytochemicals and quenching oxidative stress. The study deems that nano zinc carrying osmoregulators can greatly reduce the negative effects of drought stress and increase nutritional quality of tomato fruits.