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. 2021 Mar 16;11(3):744. doi: 10.3390/nano11030744

Table 4.

Contents of photosynthetic pigments and their ratios (expressed as % of control) in leaves after 7 days of tobacco plants exposure to 0, 25, 50, and 100 µM AgNP-citrate, AgNP-PVP, AgNP-CTAB, and AgNO in a liquid ½ strength MS medium. VAZ—violaxanthin, antheraxanthin and zeaxanthin (xanthophyll cycle pool), chl a/b—chlorophyll a/b, car/chl—carotenoids/chlorophyll, (AZ)/(VAZ)—de-epoxidation state of xanthophylls. Values are the means ± standard error of three different experiments, each with three replicates. Columns marked with different letters indicate that treatments are significantly different at the p ≤ 0.05 levels (LSD test); capital letters mark the differences among AgNP concentrations as well as control, small letters mark the differences among AgNO3 concentrations as well as control, while asterisks (*) mark the differences among different treatments of the same concentration.

Treatments AgNP or AgNO3 (µM) Chlorophylls Carotenoids VAZ chl a/b car/chl (AZ)/(VAZ)
as % of control
Control 0 100.00 ± 3.10 100.00 ± 5.17 100.00 ± 3.80 100.00 ± 2.54 100.00 ± 2.16 100.00 ± 4.78
25 104.22 ± 2.15 A 111.53 ± 3.69 *,a,A 99.30 ± 2.36 b,AB 99.01 ± 0.34 a,A 107.11 ± 1.96 *,A 113.30 ± 2.59 *,b,A
AgNP-citrate 50 97.99 ± 2.04 B 102.18 ± 2.65 b,A 92.78 ± 1.26 b 93.20 ± 1.49 *,b,B 104.39 ± 0.80 *,A 130.85 ± 2.14 *,a,A
100 104.95 ± 1.53 A 109.42 ± 1.51*,ab,A 115.85 ± 1.30 *,a,A 102.64 ± 0.32 a,A 104.41 ± 1.19 *,A 94.10 ± 3.92 c,B
25 95.86 ± 2.39 B 86.89 ± 5.23 *,B 87.45 ± 1.57 *,C 98.03 ± 0.70 A 90.57 ± 3.25 *,B 94.55 ± 2.25 ab,C
AgNP-PVP 50 90.41 ± 1.43 *,C 80.74 ± 3.15 *,B 88.38 ± 1.17 * 100.96 ± 0.50 A 89.51 ± 4.60 *,C 102.77 ± 2.80 a,C
100 91.06 ± 0.61 *,AB 82.96 ± 2.89 *,B 89.17 ± 1.90 *,B 98.56 ± 0.07 B 91.17 ± 2.89 *,B 89.34 ± 1.60 *,b,BC
25 98.22 ± 2.62 a,AB 88.07 ± 3.60 *,a,B 92.09 ± 5.05 a,BC 99.43 ± 0.76 A 89.58 ± 1.25 *,a,B 100.48 ± 3.47 a,BC
AgNP-CTAB 50 91.55 ± 2.97 *,b,C 93.43 ± 4.48 *,a,A 88.78 ± 2.57 *,b 99.25 ± 0.57 A 103.39 ± 1.77 b,AB 105.58 ± 1.62 a,C
100 77.82 ± 3.68 *,c,B 78.68 ± 4.38 *,b,B 78.60 ± 4.09 *,b,B 97.85 ± 2.14 BC 101.02 ± 1.27 b,A 85.04 ± 0.45 *,b,C
25 103.54 ± 2.01 a,A 106.76 ± 6.84 a,A 109.23 ± 3.45 a,A 92.82 ± 0.64 *,B 102.94 ± 4.71 A 109.50 ± 3.15 *,AB
AgNO3 50 104.77 ± 1.42 a,A 101.60 ± 1.76 a,A 96.89 ± 1.39 a 90.69 ± 0.58 *,B 97.02 ± 1.92 BC 116.40 ± 1.28 *,B
100 86.15 ± 7.58 *,b,B 85.97 ± 10.04 *,b,B 83.37 ± 7.93 *,b,B 94.50 ± 0.35 *,C 99.27 ± 3.56 A 109.97 ± 2.15 *,A