Abstract

This experiment was conducted during 2017 and 218 at Al Balqa Applied University of Jordan to study the impact of different concentrations of aluminum oxide (Al2O3) nanoparticles on seed germination and growth parameters of roots of two different genotype (landrace versus cultivar) of durum wheat. Different levels (5, 25, and 50 mg/mL) of aluminum oxide (Al2O3) nanoparticles were subjected to wheat seedling of about 1 cm height. The different levels of nanoparticles were synthesized from a solution (100 mg/mL) by dissolving the nanoparticles in distilled water before ultrasonication (230 V/50-60 Hz) for about one hour. The results of the present study showed that all the studied concentrations of Al2O3 (5, 25, and 50 mg/mL) nanoparticles had negative affect on the germination of landrace (Sham1) while the influence of Al2O3 nanoparticles on the cultivar genotype (Om Qais) was not significant at any concentrations tested. Additionally, all root growth parameters viz., (coleoptile, radical and total root length) were genotypic specific in response to the toxicity of Al2O3 nanoparticle especially at the intermediate and high concentrations (two-way ANOVA, p<0.05). Therefore, this study indicates that most growth parameters of durum wheat are highly sensitive to the toxicity effect of aluminum oxide with some dependency on the genotypic characteristics of wheat.