TITLE:
Effect of Using Two Different Types of Carbon Nanotubes for Blackberry (Rubus adenotrichos) in Vitro Plant Rooting, Growth and Histology
AUTHORS:
Dora Flores, Randall Chacón, Luis Alvarado, Alexander Schmidt, Carlos Alvarado, Juan Chaves
KEYWORDS:
Single Walled Carbon Nanotubes, Growth, Rooting, Blackberry, TEM
JOURNAL NAME:
American Journal of Plant Sciences,
Vol.5 No.24,
November
27,
2014
ABSTRACT: Nanoparticles are
able to interact with biomolecules, creating functional nanosystems for transportation
within in vivo cells, and leading to
the study of their potential applications in the field of plant biotechnology.
Therefore, the aim of this research was to determine
the growth and rooting effect of functionalized (SWCNTs-COOH) and
non-functionalized nanoparticles with iron residue inner particles (SWCNTs-Fe)
in blackberry (Rubus adenotrichos) in vitro plants. Two types of SWCNTs
were used, both of them characterized in a solid sample through Raman
spectroscopy (λ = 532 nm) showing
differences in the G band between SWCNT + Fe and SWCNT + COOH. The in vitro plants (approximately 15 mm length) were inoculated in a rooting medium. Six
treatments were established: 4, 8, 12 μg/ml for each type of SWCNTs and a
control without nanotubes. The assessed variables consisted of the average
number of days for root emergence, average number of roots per plant, average
root length per plant and the average stem length. This study determined that,
in general, the SWCNTs-COOH promoted the growth of the in vitro plants under this assay, when compared to the SWCNTs-Fe
trials. The lowest SWCNTs-COOH dose evidenced the best results for the assessed
variables. Additionally, the histological analysis also evidenced that the
plants treated with SWCNTs-COOH nanotubes (4 μg/ml) increased their cellular
metabolism when compared to the control group.