P.W. Ramteke

Effect of Copper Oxide Nanoparticle on the Germination, Growth and Chlorophyll in Soybean (Glycine max (L.)

Agriculture is the backbone of most developing countries and it provides food for humans, directly and indirectly. Agricultural practices are catching public attention globally because climate change, energy and resource constraints, and rapidly growing global population are constantly increasing pressure on food and water resources. The use of nanoparticles in crop sciences is consistently increasing. Several advantageous effects of nanoparticles have been observed on crop plants. Copper (Cu) is an essential nutrient for the growth of plants and plays an important role in the photosynthetic reactions. Copper activates several enzymes, contributes in RNA synthesis and improve the performance of photosystems. But at higher level of Cu, seed germination and plant growth may be adversely affected. In the present study we administered copper oxide nanoparticle in varying concentration to assess the changes in germination percentage, root and shoot length, vigor index and total chlorophyll in soybean. Results showed a significant change in all the above parameters at 200ppm concentration in response to control. Thereafter high concentration of copper oxide nanoparticle proved to be toxic resulting in decrease in plant germination and decrease in vigor index and total chlorophyll.

Effect of Different modes and Concentrations of ZnO Nano particles on Floral properties of Sunflower variety SSH6163

Nanotechnology has the potential to reinforce the missiontoward ever-green revolution by enhancing agricultural productivity with limited inputs. Zinc plays a vital role in growth hormone production, internode elongation and sexual reproduction by affecting production and shape of pollen and changes in the stigma. Keeping above facts under consideration an experiment was conducted to study the effect of Zincoxide nanoparticles(ZnONPs) on reproductive and biochemical parameters in sunflower. ZnONPs treated and untreated seeds of sunflower were grown in sand culture supplemented with zinc deficient Hoaglandsolution in order to provide representative indication of the impact of ZnONPs on plants under environmentally relevant conditions. Plants treated with ZnONPs exhibited early flowering, improved pollen viability and high starch content in pollens with respect tocontrol. Flowers bloomed first in seeds and plants treated with ZnONPs at a concentration of 250 ppm, followed by 1000 ppm oftreated seeds and untreated sand. The highest pollen viability was observed in treated seeds and treated plant at a concentrationof 500 ppm and the lowest in treated seeds with foliar application at 1000 ppm. Starch content was the highest at 250 ppm in treated seeds and untreated plants and the lowest in treated seeds and treated plants at 500 ppm concentration. This experiment revealed that ZnONPs has exhibited note worthy effect onreproductive and biochemical parameters of sunflower plant at different concentrations and under different modes of application.

Effect of Exogenous Application of Salicylic Acid on Some Morphological Parameters in Salt Stressed Tomato Varieties

Salt stress is a major environmental constraint limiting plant productivity. Tomato ( Lycopersicum esculentum) is one of the commodity vegetable that has recently been added to the list of the worlds major food crops and is considered as one of the most popular vegetable. An experiment was conducted to study the effect of salicylic acid (SA) on tomato varieties grown in different levels of salt stress. Salicylic acid (SA) is a plant growth promoting compound relatively inexpensive and enhances growth and yield of crops under saline conditions. The effect of exogenous salicylic acid (25μM) application of with four NaCl concentrations (50mM,100mM, 150mM and 200mM) stressed tomato varieties was investigated. Results on some morphological parameters as plant-height and number of leaves revealed that, salt stressreduced plant-height and number of leaves. While, exogenous application of salicylic acid promoted plant-height and number of leaves and counteracted the salt stress-induced inhibition of plant-height and number of leaves.

Evaluation of exogenous application of 24-epibrassinolide and silicon on mophological characters of salt stressed wheat varieties

Wheat is a major cereal crop in many parts of the world and it is commonly known as king of cereals. Brassinosteroids (BRs) are growth-promoting natural products found at low levels in pollen, seeds, and young vegetative tissues throughout the plant kingdom. An experiment was conducted to evaluate the effect of different combinations of Silicon (Si) and 24epibrassinolide (EBL) on wheat varieties grown under 100 mM salt stress. The result showed that shoot length of plant increased with the application of EBL and Silicon and it was increased the maximum in salt tolerant varieties in comparison to non-tolerant. Whilst, reduction was observed in root length along with the increasing concentration of EBL. The effect of different combinations of silicon and 24-epibrassinolidealso increased the germination percentage (%) in tolerant and non-tolerant wheat varieties.