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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Plant Sci.
Sec. Plant Abiotic Stress
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpls.2025.1529598
This article is part of the Research Topic Nanotechnology and Plant Signaling: Enhancing Crop Resilience to Abiotic Stress View all 3 articles

Metabolomic analyses reveal that Graphene oxide alleviates Nicosulfuron toxicity in sweet corn

Provisionally accepted
Jian Wang Jian Wang 1Yanbing Wang Yanbing Wang 2Yanli Wang Yanli Wang 1*Xuemei Zhong Xuemei Zhong 3Xiuping Wang Xiuping Wang 1Xiaohu Lin Xiaohu Lin 1
  • 1 Hebei Normal University of Science and Technology, Qinhuangdao, China
  • 2 Institute of Millet Crops, Hebei Academy of Agricultural and Forestry Sciences, Shijizhuang, China
  • 3 Shenyang Agricultural University, Shenyang, Liaoning, China

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

    Nicosulfuron can repress the growth and quality of sweet corn (Zea mays), and graphene oxide has been used for sustainable agriculture. However, the underlying mechanism of the toxicity of nicosulfuron that is mediated in sweet corn remains elusive. To explore the potential mechanism of GO-mediated nicosulfuron toxicity in sweet corn. In this study, we investigated the effects of graphene oxide on nicosulfuron stress in the sweet corn sister inbred lines of H01 and H20.Nicosulfuron severely affected the rate of survival, physiological parameters, photosynthetic indicators, and chlorophyll fluorescence parameters of corn seedlings, whereas foliar spraying with graphene oxide promoted the rate of survival under nicosulfuron toxicity. A metabolomics analysis showed that 70 and 90 metabolites differentially accumulated in the H01 and H20 inbred lines under nicosulfuron treatment, respectively. Graphene oxide restored 59 metabolites in the H01 seedlings and 56 metabolites to normal levels in the H20 seedlings, thereby promoting the rate of survival of the sweet corn seedlings. Compared with nicosulfuron treatment alone, graphene oxide resulted in 108 and 66 differential metabolites in the H01 and H20 inbred lines, respectively. A correlation analysis revealed that metabolites, such as doronine and (R)-2-hydroxy-2-hydroxylase-1,4-benzoxazin-3(4-hydroxylase)-1, significantly correlated with the rate of survival, photosynthetic parameters and chlorophyll fluorescence parameters. Furthermore, metabolites related to the detoxification of graphene oxide were enriched in the flavonoid metabolic pathways. These results collectively indicate that graphene oxide can be used as a regulator of corn growth and provide insights into their use to improve the crops in areas that are contaminated with nicosulfuron.

    Keywords: Flavonoid, graphene oxide, Metabolomics, Nicosulfuron, sweet corn

    Received: 17 Nov 2024; Accepted: 29 Jan 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Wang, Wang, Wang, Zhong, Wang and Lin. 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: Yanli Wang, Hebei Normal University of Science and Technology, Qinhuangdao, 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.