Zinc oxide nano particles alleviate drought stress effects on soybean antioxidant system during germination

In order to assess the effects of zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZO-NP) on soybean seed germination under droughtstress induced by polyethylene glycol, a factorial experiment was conducted in a completely randomizeddesign at the University of Mohaghegh Ardabili, Ardabil, Iran, in 2013. The experiment consisted of threelevels of drought (0, -0.5, and -1 MPa) and various concentrations of ZO-NP (0, 0.5, and 1 g lit-1). The soybeanseeds used in this experiment were DPX prepared from Moghan Agricultural Research Center. Resultsshowed that drought stress reduced the activity of peroxidase, superoxide dismutase, malate synthase, andisocitrate lyase enzymes together with the germination rate, ascorbate, and alpha-tocopherolconcentrations. However, the use of ZO-NP could counteract the adverse effects of drought, so that nonenzymatic antioxidant levels and antioxidant enzyme activity were increased and this improved thegermination rate. Applying ZO-NP increased the activity of isocitrate lyase and malate synthase enzymes. Based on these results, it seems that the use of ZN-OP can be one way to mitigate the adverse effects of drought stress during soybean germination.