(Press-News.org) Soil salt concentrations above the optimal threshold for plant growth can threaten global food security by compromising agricultural productivity and crop quality. An analysis published in Physiologia Plantarum examined the potential of nanomaterials—which have emerged over the past decade as a promising tool to mitigate such “salinity stress”—to address this challenge.
Nanomaterials, which are tiny natural or synthetic materials, can modulate a plant’s response to salinity stress through various mechanisms, for example by affecting the expression of genes related to salt tolerance or by enhancing physiological processes such as antioxidant activities.
When investigators assessed 495 experiments from 70 publications related to how different nanomaterials interact with plants under salinity stress, they found that nanomaterials enhance plant performance and mitigate salinity stress when applied at lower dosages. At higher doses, however, nanomaterials are toxic to plants and may even worsen salinity stress.
Also, plant responses to nanomaterials vary across plant species, plant families, and nanomaterial types.
“Our analysis revealed that plants respond more positively to nanomaterials under salt stress compared with non-stressed conditions, indicating the ameliorative role of nanomaterials,” said corresponding author Damiano R. Kwaslema, MSc, of Sokoine University of Agriculture, in Tanzania. “These findings pave the way for considering nanomaterials as a future option for managing salinity stress.”
URL upon publication: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ppl.14445
Additional Information
NOTE: The information contained in this release is protected by copyright. Please include journal attribution in all coverage. For more information or to obtain a PDF of any study, please contact: Sara Henning-Stout, newsroom@wiley.com.
About the Journal
Physiologia Plantarum advances the understanding of primary mechanisms of plant development, growth, and productivity, as well as plant interactions with the biotic and abiotic environment.
About Wiley
Wiley is a knowledge company and a global leader in research, publishing, and knowledge solutions. Dedicated to the creation and application of knowledge, Wiley serves the world’s researchers, learners, innovators, and leaders, helping them achieve their goals and solve the world's most important challenges. For more than two centuries, Wiley has been delivering on its timeless mission to unlock human potential. Visit us at Wiley.com. Follow us on Facebook, X, LinkedIn and Instagram.
END
Can nanomaterials enhance plant tolerance to high soil salt levels?
2024-08-07
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Study on planet-warming contrails “a spanner in the works” for aviation industry
2024-08-07
Modern commercial aircraft flying at high altitudes create longer-lived planet-warming contrails than older aircraft, a new study has found.
The result means that although modern planes emit less carbon than older aircraft, they may be contributing more to climate change through contrails.
Led by scientists at Imperial College London, the study highlights the immense challenges the aviation industry faces to reduce its impact on the climate. The new study also found that private jets produce more contrails than previously thought, ...
Sea lion camera crews help researchers explore previously unmapped ocean habitats
2024-08-07
The world’s seabeds are little explored, and the knowledge we have is patchy. Using remotely operated underwater vehicles to learn about seabeds is expensive, requires certain weather conditions, and is difficult in deep, remote, and offshore habitats.
To circumvent these challenges, researchers in Australia have now enlisted endangered Australian sea lions (Neophoca cinerea) to carry cameras. The resulting videos allowed the researchers to identify previously unmapped benthic habitats used by the sea lions on the continental shelf. They published their results in Frontiers in Marine Science.
“Using ...
Superbugs spread to family members of recently hospitalized patients
2024-08-07
ARLINGTON, Va. (August 7, 2024) — Family members of patients recently discharged from the hospital may have a higher risk of getting an antibiotic-resistant infection, often called a superbug, even if the patient was not diagnosed with the same infection, suggesting hospitals play a role in the community spread of resistant bacteria, according to study in Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology, the journal of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America.
When recently hospitalized patients were diagnosed with the superbug — Methicillin-resistant ...
Preventing heat stroke in tennis: insights into the heat environments of tennis courts
2024-08-07
With rising global temperatures due to global warming, the risk of heat strokes has increased and is expected to grow even further. This is particularly troubling for athletes participating in competitive sports. In tennis, multiple matches are played daily, lasting up to five hours. Playing such matches in sweltering conditions could be highly detrimental.
The Tokyo Olympic Games in 2021 faced extremely hot conditions with many players calling for appropriate countermeasures. Consequently, the International Tennis Federation (ITF) formulated and issued the “Extreme Weather Policy” at the Tokyo Olympics to manage matches based ...
Dozing at the wheel? Not with these fatigue-detecting earbuds
2024-08-07
Everyone gets sleepy at work from time to time, especially after a big lunch. But for people whose jobs involve driving or working with heavy machinery, drowsiness can be extremely dangerous — if not outright deadly. Drowsy driving contributes to hundreds of fatal vehicle accidents in the U.S. each year, and the National Safety Council has cited drowsiness as a critical hazard in construction and mining.
To help protect drivers and machine operators from the dangers of drifting off, engineers at the University of California, Berkeley, have created prototype earbuds that can detect the signs of drowsiness ...
FDA approves new therapy for glioma patients for first time in decades
2024-08-07
Boston – Vorasidenib has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for patients with Grade 2 gliomas with IDH1 or IDH2 mutations.
Based on evidence from the INDIGO clinical trial, a global phase 3, double-blinded, randomized clinical trial, vorasidenib more than doubled progression-free survival and delayed the need for treatment with radiation and chemotherapy for patients with Grade 2 IDH-mutant glioma after surgery to remove the tumor. INDIGO was the first phase 3 clinical trial of a molecularly targeted therapy for IDH-mutant glioma.
“The INDIGO trial ...
Think about banning kitchen worktop favourite to ward off incurable lung disease, urge doctors
2024-08-07
It may now be time to ban artificial stone—a firm favourite for kitchen worktops in the UK— to ward off the incurable lung disease caused by its manufacturing and fitting, say a team of doctors in the journal Thorax after treating the first 8 cases of artificial stone silicosis reported in the UK.
Silicosis is caused by breathing in crystalline silica dust, and millions of people around the world are at risk of developing it as a result of their jobs in mining, quarrying, stone-cutting ...
Follow Australia’s lead and ban artificial stone, researchers urge European governments
2024-08-07
The UK and the European Union should follow Australia’s lead and ban the kitchen worktop favourite and cause of irreversible and rapidly progressive lung disease—artificial stone siliicosis—urge researchers in an editorial, published online in Occupational & Environmental Medicine.
And until a ban comes into force, all possible control measures should be legally enforced to minimise workers’ exposure to the harmful crystalline silica dust generated during its manufacture and fitting, insist the authors.
Artificial stone (also known as engineered stone) is widely used for surfaces ...
Reducing child poverty in England would significantly boost child health and narrow health inequalities
2024-08-07
Renewed efforts to reduce child poverty in England between now and 2033, such as removing the 2-child limit on child benefit, would significantly boost several aspects of child health and narrow health inequalities across the country, finds research published online in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health.
Tackling it would substantially cut the number of infant deaths and children in care, as well as rates of childhood nutritional anaemia and emergency admissions, with the most deprived regions, especially ...
Cut ties with Coca Cola in interests of athletes, spectators, and the planet, IOC urged
2024-08-07
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) should cut its ties with Coca Cola in the best interests of athletes, spectators, and the planet, urge Trish Cotter and Sandra Mullin of the international public health organisation, Vital Strategies, in an editorial to be published shortly in the open access journal BMJ Global Health.*
The company’s sponsorship forces athletes to implicitly endorse unhealthy sugary drinks and provides Coca Cola with elite access to political and corporate leaders to exert its influence, insist the authors.
Coca Cola has sponsored the Olympic Games for almost 100 years, they note. And there’s ...