ICP-MS Based Metallomics and GC-MS Based Metabolomics Reveals the
Physiological and Metabolic Responses of Dendrobium huoshanense Plants
Exposed to Fe 3 O 4 Nanoparticles
Abstract
To improve the growth, yield and quality of Dendrobium
huoshanense, Fe 3O 4 NPs has been used
as nano-fertilizer. Safety of Fe 3O 4
NPs in medicinal production on D. huoshanense must be critically
evaluated. In this study, two-year-old D. huoshanense was
cultured in a solution containing Fe 3O
4 NPs (100 or 200 mg/L) for 21 days. The results were
investigated by a combination of phenotypic and non-target metabolomics
based on gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Fe
3O 4 NPs induced not only earlier
flowering and increased sugar content, photosynthesis, but also stress
to plants, increased MDA content and related antioxidant enzymes
activities. Fe 3O 4 NPs caused a
significant Fe and some other nutrient elements (Mn, Co, B, Mo)
accumulation in stems based in Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass
Spectrometry analysis. Metabolomics revealed that the metabolites were
reprogrammed in D. huoshanense by Fe 3O
4 NPs exposure. Fe 3O 4
NPs can inhibit antioxidant defense-related pathways, suggesting that Fe
3O 4 NPs had the antioxidant ability
with plants accumulating relative metabolites to cope with stresses. As
the first study associating Fe 3O 4 NPs
with the quality of D. huoshanense, it provided vital insights
into the molecular mechanisms of how D. huoshanense responds to
Fe 3O 4 NPs, ensuring the reasonable use
of Fe 3O 4 NPs as nano-fertilizer.