Among nanoparticles, silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) are intensively used in many materials owing to their antibacterial effects. In the present study different concentrations of AgNPs in Hoagland solution were applied to tomato seedlings. | Turkish Journal of Biology Turk J Biol (2017) 41: 700-707 © TÜBİTAK doi: Research Article Silver nanoparticles induced genotoxicity and oxidative stress in tomato plants 1, 1 2 2 Fazilet Özlem ÇEKİÇ *, Sefa EKİNCİ , Müslüm Süleyman İNAL , Dilek ÜNAL Department of Biology, Faculty of Science and Letters, Aksaray University, Aksaray, Turkey 2 Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Faculty of Science and Letters, Bilecik Seyh Edebali University, Bilecik, Turkey 1 Received: Accepted/Published Online: Final Version: Abstract: Among nanoparticles, silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) are intensively used in many materials owing to their antibacterial effects. In the present study different concentrations of AgNPs in Hoagland solution were applied to tomato seedlings. Total chlorophyll content, relative water content (RWC), antioxidant enzyme activities, and malondialdehyde content (MDA) as well as the genomic template stability (GTS) were analyzed. The intersimple sequence repeat polymerase chain reaction assay (ISSR-PCR) was used to determine the genotoxic effects of AgNPs on DNA. RWC did not change under AgNPs treatments; however, total chlorophyll content was significantly reduced by AgNPs applications. ISSR profiles demonstrated a consistent increase in polymorphic bands by the increase in the concentration of AgNPs. GTS value was also reduced depending on the concentration of AgNPs. SOD and APX activities were increased under low AgNPs treatments; however, these activities were decreased under high concentrations of AgNPs treatments. Tomato plants could be sensitive to AgNPs within the increase in MDA content in all of the AgNPs treatments. AgNPs nanotoxicity could be quite dose-dependent. AgNPs could also have negative effects on tomato plants by enhancing DNA damage and lipid peroxidation. Key words: AgNP, antioxidant enzymes, ISSR-PCR, Solanum lycopersicum .
