Optimizing water relations, gas exchange parameters, biochemical attributes and yield of water-stressed maize plants through seed priming with iron oxide nanoparticles.

Drought poses significant risks to maize cultivation by impairing plant growth, water uptake and yield; nano priming offers a promising avenue to mitigate these effects by enhancing plant water relations, stress tolerance and overall productivity. In the current experiment, we tested a hypothesis that seed priming with iron oxide nanoparticles (n-Fe2O3) can improve maize performance under water stress by improving its growth, water relations, yield and biochemical attributes. The experiment was conducted on a one main plot bisected into two subplots corresponding to the water and drought environments. Within each subplot, maize plants were raised from n-Fe2O3 primed seeds corresponding to 0 mg. L- 1 (as control treatment), 25, 50, 75, and 100 mg. L- 1 (as trial treatments). Seed priming with n-Fe2O3 at a concentration of 75 mg. L- 1 improved the leaf relative water content, water potential, photosynthetic water use efficiency, and leaf intrinsic water use efficiency of maize plants by 13%, 44%, 64% and 17%, respectively compared to control under drought stress. The same treatments improved plant biochemical attributes such as total chlorophyll content, total flavonoids and ascorbic acid by 37%, 22%, and 36%, respectively. Seed priming with n-Fe2O3 accelerated the functioning of antioxidant enzymes such as SOD and POD and depressed the levels of leaf malondialdehyde and hydrogen peroxide significantly. Seed priming with n-Fe2O3 at a concentration of 75 mg. L- 1 improved cob length, number of kernel rows per cob, and 100 kernel weight by 59%, 27% and 33%, respectively, under drought stress. Seed priming with n-Fe2O3 can be used to increase maize production under limited water scenarios.

Novel microbial synthesis of titania nanoparticles using probiotic Bacillus coagulans and its role in enhancing the microhardness of glass ionomer restorative materials.

Dental caries is a commonly occurring non-communicable disease throughout the world that might compromise the quality of any individual's life. Glass ionomer cements (GIC) are the most acceptable restorative materials due to their ease of manipulation, minimal tooth loss and least invasive strategy; however, they lack mechanical stability that has become a point of concern. Nanoparticles (NPs) are an outstanding option for modifying and enhancing the properties of dental materials. The focus of this study was to prepare novel, biocompatible titania dioxide (TiO2) NPs as a dental-restorative material using an efficient probiotic Bacillus coagulans. The prepared NPs were incorporated into glass ionomer restorative material at varying concentrations and investigated for cell viability percentage, microhardness and surface morphology. Results indicated that pure 100% anatase phase TiO2 NPs with particle size of 21.84 nm arranged in smooth, spherical agglomerates and clusters forms. These NPs depicted cell viability > 90%, thus confirming their non-cytotoxic behavior. GIC restorative materials reinforced by 5% titania (TiO2) NPs demonstrated the highest microhardness in comparison to the control group and other experimental groups of the study. Surface morphology analysis revealed a reduction in cracks in this novel dental-restorative material supporting its compatible biological nature with better hardness strength and negligible crack propagation. Overall, these results indicated that TiO2 NPs produced using a biological approach could be easily used as restorative materials in dental applications.