INTERACTION BETWEEN SILVER NANOPARTICLES AND PLANT GROWTH

Recently silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) were used in the preparation of new pesticide and insecticide formulations. As most of the greenhouse crops are grown hydroponically, these AgNPs may be easily found in the rhizosphere and plant organs. Because of its property, AgNPs improves the bactericidal and fungicidal effectiveness of silver against important plant pathogenic fungi. However, there has been a few reported studies of the impact of AgNPs on vascular plants, showing that AgNP could have positive or negative effects on plant growth. The aim of this study was to assess the AgNP impacts on greenhouse grown species (radish and lettuce) using barley as a reference plant. Short term effect of four silver nanoparticle concentrations (1; 2.5; 5 and 10 mg L^-1) of 10 nm-PVP on the germination and root elongation were investigated under controlled growing conditions. Results on the impact of AgNPs on root elongation showed both, positive and negative effects depending of the studied species. Specifically, root length was increased for barley, but was dramatically inhibited for lettuce. However, root and leaf length of our germination trials were not affected when AgNPs were incorporated into the soil.