Physiological Effects of Single- and Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotubes on Rice Seedlings

In this paper, single-walled carbon nano-tubes (SWCNTs) and multi-walled carbon nano-tubes (MWCNTs) were found to accelerate leaf growth and development of rice seedlings at a low concentration (20 mg/L), accompanied with the increased chlorophyll content and net photosynthetic rate (P-N). Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction results indicated that both SWCNTs and MWCNTs significantly increased expression of genes associated with chloroplast development and cell sizes. Further analysis revealed that the abscisic acid content decreased and the gibberellin content increased while the content of O-2(-) and H2O2 was slightly elevated and the activities of antioxidative enzymes (SOD, EC 1.15.1.1, and POD, EC 1.11.1.7) were differently modulated after treatment with the carbon nanotube (CNT). These results suggest a possible link between reactive oxygen species and plant hormones under CNTs treatment to promote rice seedlings growth.