Abstract
Lower concentrations of nanoparticles (NPs) could have positive effects on plants. In the present experiment, we tested the efficacy of seed priming Egyptian roselle cultivar with aluminum oxide nanoparticles (Al(2)O(3)NPs). Plants grown with different concentrations (0.01, 0.05, 0.1, and 0.5%) of Al(2)O(3)NPs-primed seeds showed varied responses. An increasing impact with 0.01% Al(2)O(3)NPs was noticed on growth traits, such as fresh weight, dry weight, shoot length, root length, and leaf area, and physio-biochemical activities like chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b, carotenoid contents, soluble sugars, protein, amino acid, proline, and the activities of defense enzymes viz-superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), peroxidase (POD), and ascorbate peroxidase (APX). Nevertheless, a decrease was noted in malondialdehyde (MDA) when plants were primed with 0.01% Al(2)O(3)NPs. Seed priming with 0.05, 0.1, and 0.5% Al(2)O(3)NPs caused the negative effects in the aforementioned parameters. The principal component analysis revealed significant correlations among the various studied parameters. Therefore, seed priming with Al(2)O(3)NPs at 0.01% was expected to serve as an effective measure for inducing positive effect in Egyptian roselle cultivar.