The synthesized nanocomposite, rGO/SiO2/ZnO, mitigates salinity impacts on soybean
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.25081/jpsp.2026.v12.9807Keywords:
Antioxidant enzymes, Growth parameters, Phenolics, Protein, Stress toleranceAbstract
Soybean is an important crop in Egypt; however, the domestic supply is insufficient due to the limited agricultural areas despite the huge area of saline soils. So, utilizing these saline soils to cultivate soybeans, while increasing its tolerance to salinity by external assistance, can increase its productivity and close the food gap. Using the nanoparticles (NPs) is promising as potential solution in this field. For this purpose, the rGO/SiO2/ZnO nanocomposite (NC) was successfully synthesized from reduced graphene oxide, silicon dioxide, and zinc oxide NPs in combination with soybean extract to be used as seed priming to mitigate salinity impacts. The synthesized NC is characterized with an absorption peak at 354 nm, indicating the annealing of ZnO NPs and SiO2 NPs on the GO sheets with a positive charge (+30.9±10.4 mV) and the NPs were rod-shaped particles with an average size ranging from 64 to 78 nm. Soybean seedlings suffered from salinity stress (NaCl at 100, or 200 mM) as significant reductions in growth parameters coincided with decreasing phenolics, protein, and activities of peroxidase and catalase. However, priming seeds in the synthesized NC effectively mitigated the impacts of NaCl, restoring parameter values close to -and even exceeded- the control. Among the used concentrations of the NC, 150 and 300 μg L-1 were more effective than 50 μg L-1 but 500 μg L-1 was inappropriate and seemed to synergize the impacts of salinity. These results suggest that salinity has negative impacts on soybean while using the rGO/SiO2/ZnO NC is a highly promising safe and efficient protectant for enhancing soybean’s resilience when used at the concentrations 150 and 300 μg L-1. The novelty of the rGO/SiO2/ZnO NC tri-component architecture as safe and efficient seed priming agent has been demonstrated, this knowledge might be useful for understanding the responses of the plant cells to modulate NaCl tolerance in future researches.
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