Effect Of Iron Oxide Nanoparticles On Cadmium Stress In Melon

Cadmium stress will not only reduce the yield and quality of crops, but also pose a threat to human health. It is an important research topic to find ways to alleviate cadmium stress in plants. The emergence of nanomaterials and their excellent adsorption of Cd2+ provide new ideas to alleviate plant cadmium stress. We used melon as the experimental object to explore the mitigation effect of three kinds of nanoparticles: alpha-Fe2O3 NPs, gamma-Fe2O3 NPs and Fe3O4 NPs on cadmium stress in melon. The cadmium stress in melon seedlings might be so severe that the mitigation effect of three iron oxide nanoparticles on melon cadmium stress was not shown in the appearance of melon seedlings. However, the experimental results showed that the three kinds of nanoparticles could effectively reduce the intake of Cd2+ in melon seedlings. The addition of alpha-Fe2O3 NPs, gamma-Fe2O3 NPs, and Fe2O3 NPs reduced the intake of Cd2+ in melon seedlings by 46.2%, 50.8%, 44.2%, respectively. Additionally compared with the Cd2+ treatment, the chlorophyll content of melon seedlings increased, the soluble sugar accumulation and the soluble protein consumption decreased after adding nanoparticles. alpha-Fe2O3 NPs had no obvious effect on increasing the chlorophyll content, but had a significant effect on reducing the accumulation of soluble sugar and the consumption of soluble protein. Three kinds of iron oxide nanoparticles could improve the POD activity of melon young seedling leaves, and the addition of alpha-Fe2O3 NPs could effectively improve the APX activity in melon leaves. In summary, these three kinds of iron oxide nanoparticles had a certain effect on alleviating cadmium stress, and the effect of alpha-Fe2O3 NPs was better than the other two iron oxide nanoparticles. This experimental study will provide some reference for the mitigation of cadmium stress in plants.