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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Environ. Sci.
Sec. Toxicology, Pollution and the Environment
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fenvs.2024.1469172
This article is part of the Research Topic Nanotechnology-enabled Agriculture and its Environmental Impact View all articles

Combined toxicity of multiwall carbon nanotubes and Cadmium on rice (Oryza sativa L.) growth in soil

Provisionally accepted
Jinghua Long Jinghua Long 1,2Xuanxuan Wang Xuanxuan Wang 1Wei Zhang Wei Zhang 1,2*
  • 1 School of Public Administration, Hebei University of Economics and Business, Shijiazhuang, China
  • 2 Hebei Collaborative Innovation Center for Urban-rural Integrated Development, Shijiazhuang, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    The comprehensive effects of nanoparticles and coexisting heavy metals on plant growth are still unclear, especially in soil medium. The single and combined effects of multiwall carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) and cadmium (Cd) on rice (Oryza sativa L.) growth were examined in this study through a four months pot experiment in 2022. Rice plants were exposed to different concentrations of MWCNTs (100 and 500 mg kg -1 ) in the presence of 5.0 mg kg -1 Cd stress. At the tillering stage, the 500 mg kg -1 MWCNTs addition reduced plant height by 8.0% and increased soluble protein content in the leaves by 13.7%, demonstrating that a single MWCNTs had a slight negative impact on rice growth. When exposed to Cd stress, the inclusion of 500 mg kg -1 MWCNTs led to a 6.7-9.0% decrease in bioavailable Cd level in soil, resulting in considerable reductions in Cd content in roots (23.4-29.9%), shoots (24.5-28.3%) and grains (28.3-66.2%). Compared to the single Cd treatment, the Oryza sativa L. leaves treated with Cd and MWCNTs (500 mg kg -1 ) had considerably reduced levels of malondialdehyde (MDA), soluble protein, and activities of antioxidant enzymes (POD, CAT, and SOD). The findings of this study indicated that appropriate concentrations of MWCNTs application in soil could alleviate Cd-induced toxicity on rice growth.

    Keywords: Cadmium, Multiwall Carbon Nanotubes, Oxidative Stress, Plant Growth, Soil Pollution

    Received: 23 Jul 2024; Accepted: 30 Aug 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Long, Wang and Zhang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Wei Zhang, School of Public Administration, Hebei University of Economics and Business, Shijiazhuang, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.