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Abstract
Se is beneficial to plants’ growth and it is an essential mineral for animals and humans. However, relatively little is known about the relationship between nano-Se concentrations and plant antioxidant activity. In this work, a pot experiment was carried out using two cultivars of tobacco and increasing nano-Se concentrations. The changes of plant biomass, root growth, chlorophyll content, nutrient accumulation and reactive oxygen species (ROS) content in tobacco leaves after being sprayed with nano-Se were studied. The results indicated that the growth of tobacco can be promoted by applying nano-Se in an appropriate concentration. In addition, our research proves that there is cultivars variation in the response of tobacco to increased concentrations of nano-Se. The biomass, root growth characteristics, chlorophyll content and N accumulation of E'yan 1 were increased significantly and were the highest at 5.0 mg L−1 of nano-Se. On the other hand, the above mentioned indicators for K326 reached the maximum value at 2.5 mg L−1 and decreased at 5.0 mg L−1 of nano-Se. The antioxidant enzymes activity were increased by the application of nano-Se, however cultivars variation was detected. The application of nano-Se reduced the amount of thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) and ROS at 5.0 mg L−1 for both cultivars. This study confirms that nano-Se affects positively the growth and oxidative status of tobacco plants. However, this study points out that more research is needed to understand the interaction phenomena observed here between tobacco cultivars and concentrations specifically for the anti-oxidant status of the plant.
Conflicts of interest
The authors declare no conflict of interest.