英文摘要

Carbon nanoparticles (CNPs) have been reported to boost plant growth, while the mechanism that CNPs enhanced potassium uptake for plant growth has not been reported so far.

In this study, the function that CNPs promoted potassium uptake in BY-2 cells was established and the potassium accumulated in cells had a significant correlation with the fresh biomass of cells. The K+ in cells increased with the increasing concentration of CNPs. The K+ influx reached high level after treatment with CNPs and was significantly higher than that of the control group and the negative group treated with K+ blocker, tetraethylammonium chloride ( TEA+).

The K+ accumulation was not reduced in the presence of CNPs inhibitors. In the presence of potassium channel blocker TEA+ or CNPs inhibitors, the NKT1 gene expression was changed compared with the control group. The CNPs were found to preferentially transport K+ than other cations determined by rectification of ion current assay (RIC) in a conical nanocapillary.

These results indicated that CNPs upregulated potassium gene expression to enhance K+ in BY-2 cells. Moreover, it was speculated that the CNPs simulated protein of ion channels via bulk of carboxyl for K+ permeating. These findings will provide support for improving plant growth by carbon nanoparticles.

Effects of CNPs and inhibitor treatments on net K⁺ fluxes in BY-2 cells. a K fluxes were determined with after different CNPs treatments lasting for 900 s measurements. b Schematic diagram of test sample. c Mean value of K⁺ fluxes at different concentration of CNPs in cells. Group 1: 62.50 μg/mL CNPs, Group 2: 125.00 μg/mL CNPs, Group 3: 125.00 μg/mL CNPs ⁺ 10 mM TEA⁺. The mean value of each group contains six individual cell, and error bars represent SE, n = 6. Asterisk (*) indicates significant difference compared with control group (p < 0.05)