Russian scientists have developed nanopreparations to increase the survival of seedlings
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Russian scientists have developed nanopreparations to increase the survival of seedlings

Expert Reports  
02-24-2020
 

The Russian scientists have presented a new technology to increase the survival of microclone seedlings planted for the reforestation after massive fires. The team of researchers of the National University of Science and Technology MISIS (NUST MISIS) and the Tambov State University (TSU), together with partners from the Nursery Complex of the Voronezh Region, succeeded in obtaining seedlings of deciduous and coniferous trees with a 10-28 percent higher survival in open ground. According to the MISIS, they have already been used to create experimental forest plantations in the Voronezh Region.

During a fire hazard season in a number of Russian regions, fire caught over 10 mn hectares of forest.
To restore the forest resources, the seedlings grown in a special lab environment were planted in the areas damaged by fire using a microclonal propagation method. The method is based on the ability of a plant cell to give rise to a whole plant organism in favourable conditions. The tree microclones can propagate 3-4 times faster than ordinary seedlings, and they are genetically homogeneous. However, during their adaptation to the soil there is a high mortality of seedlings as the plants are unspecialized.
 

Experimental samples of unique nanopreparations had been developed and obtained on the base of the colloidal nanoparticle solutions.
According to Alexander Gusev, the project manager, Director of the TSU Research Institute of Ecology and Biotechnology, MISIS senior research fellow, “the nanopreparations obtained are the basis of the nutrient medium and they protect the seedlings of woody microclone plants from the infection effects”. Gusev explained that the main reason for the mortality of about 30 percent of seedlings is microscopic phytopathogenic fungi, from which the preparations protect. It has been experimentally proved that they kill about 90-95 percent of the pathogenic microorganisms.

The MISIS explained that the nanopreparation is used to sterilize the initial piece of the plant tissue, which is then cloned. This occurs before its introduction into the culture, and it is also added to the cultivation environment where microseedlings grow. In addition, the plants are treated with a nanopreparation suspension while watering the soil after transplanting them from test tubes into containers with soil.

In general, in Russia, the need for seedlings obtained by microclonal propagation is 40-50 mn plants per year. Today, only 2.5% of the requirement is satisfied by the domestic biotechnological companies.
According to Denis Kuznetsov, Head of the MISIS Department of Functional Nanosystems and High-Temperature Materials, in vitro copper oxide nanoparticles increased the formation of additional offshoots in seedlings. “This is consistent with the data obtained by our department staff in many-year research work - the nanoparticles of metals and metal oxides often exhibit stimulating effects in a number of plant cultures,” he explained.

In the MISIS, they say that as a result, the woody plant growth and phytoimmunity stimulators have been developed that have no rivals. The development made by the Russian researchers has an export potential, since it can be in demand in the countries where the majority of planting material is produced by microclonal propagation laboratories - the USA, Canada, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Poland, Germany, Latvia, Belgium, and the Netherlands.