Evaluation of changes in the macro and micronutrients homeostasis of transgenic and non-transgenic soybean plants after cultivation with silver nanoparticles through ionomic approaches

An ionomic approach is conducted for evaluating the silver distribution, in different soybean plant compartments, as well as its influence on the homeostasis of some macro (P and S) and micro (Cu, Fe, Mn and Zn) nutrients. Silver is added to transgenic and non-transgenic soybean plants as nanoparticles or silver nitrate for comparative purposes. The transgenic plants translocate a higher amount of silver (100 and 65% for silver nanoparticles and silver nitrate expositions, respectively) than non-transgenic, and considering the treatments, the cultivation with silver nanoparticles results in a higher translocation rate (100 and 21% for transgenic and non-transgenic plants, respectively). In addition, significant differences are found (p < 0.05) considering those macro and micronutrients in all plant compartments, mainly in the roots of those treated plants, indicating not only that both silver forms evaluated interfere in the plant metabolism, but also their toxicities.