Studies detailing the effects of silver nanoparticles on inorganic carbon utilization by submerged macrophytes.
Aquatic macrophytes grow underwater and represent a group of higher plants that are suitable for aquatic environments. When grown in water, absorption of inorganic carbon is very different from that of terrestrial plants. However, the diversity and abundance of macrophytes in water has decreased in recent decades, and the pollutants released into the aquatic environment may be one of the main reasons.
Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) have become one of the emerging contaminants due to their worldwide use for the identification of highly prevalent pathogens. However, little is known about the effects of AgNPs on the photosynthetic utilization of inorganic carbon in aquatic macrophytes.
Researchers from the Wuhan Botanical Garden of the Chinese University of Science investigated the effect of AgNP on the use of inorganic carbon in aquatic macrophytes using Ottleila alismoides, the only macrophyte with three CO2 concentration systems. They found that as soon as the macrophytes come into contact with the released AgNPs, before they take it, the AgNPs immediately inhibit the activity of carbonic anhydrase in the periplasmic space, thus reducing the plant’s ability to use soda soda.
When ingested by deep-seated macrophytes, AgNPs accumulate in cell walls and in chloroplasts. AgNPs in the body effectively shut down the activity of ribulose 1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase-oxygenase (Rubisco) to fix CO2, thus blocking the Calvin cycle.
Meanwhile, indoor AgNPs damaged C4 and crassulacean acid (CAM) metabolism by inhibiting the activity of phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase (PEPC), pyruvate phosphate dikinase (PPDK), and NAD-dependent malic enzyme (NAD-ME) to modulate intracellular biosynthesis and intracellular decarboxylation.
Due to the different responses to AgNPs between the methods of using inorganic carbon (different reactions of carbonic anhydrase, Rubisco, PEPC, PPDK, and NAD-ME to AgNP exposure), the released AgNPs can disrupt the balance of different inorganic carbon species use methods, which can change the composition of freshwater plant communities and the carbon cycle in water systems, especially CO2 and bicarbonate agents.
This contribution may change the species composition of freshwater plant communities and the carbon cycle in water systems, which should be considered in future studies.
The results titled “Utilization of inorganic carbon: toxic target of silver nanoparticles in aquatic macrophyte” have been published in Environmental Pollution.
