Response of Biochemical and Physiological Properties of camellia (Camelina sativa L.) to Foliar Application of Calcium and Silicon Nanoparticles

Agriculture is facing a number of challenges included low harvest index, low nutrient use efficiency, water limitation, etc. affected by climate change. Nano-form of nutrients is a frontier technology to improve crop productivity under these conditions. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of foliar application of nano form of silicon and calcium on the photosynthetic pigments, the activity of antioxidant enzymes and the amount of soluble sugars. This study was performed as a factorial experiment in based on completely randomized design with three replications in Iran in 2019 and 2020. Analysis of variance showed that the main effect of calcium was significant for all studied traits except chlorophyll a/b ratio. The experimental results showed that the interaction effect of nano-calcium and nano-silicon was significant for all studied traits except chlorophyll a/b ratio. Also, the results of mean comparison showed that the highest level of antioxidant enzyme activity was observed in the treatment of 0 mg L-1 nano-siliconx1 g L-1 nano-calcium consumption. The highest amount of total chlorophyll, glucose, galactose, rhamnosus and xylose sugars as well as proline were observed in the treatment of application of 2.5 mg L-1 nano-silicon x and 1 g L-1 nano-calcium. The results of correlation analysis showed that there was a negative relationship between malondialdehyde and antioxidant enzymes. Also, principal component analysis and cluster analysis were able to properly group the different treatments studied. Cluster analysis divided the studied treatments into four groups, so that the treatment of application of 1 g L-1 nano-calcium and consumption of 2.5 mg L-1 nano-silicon were independently grouped. The biplot obtained from the first and second components showed that the treatment of 4% calcium application and no silicon consumption had a very strong relationship with anthocyanin. Finally, this experiment showed that the treatment of consumption of 1 g L-1 nano-calcium and application of 2.5 mg L-1 nano-silicon have favorable biochemical and physiological effects related to photosynthetic processes and sugar production in camelina.