BACKGROUND Carbon nanoparticles (CNPs) have been reported to boost plant growth, while the mechanism that CNPs enhanced potassium uptake for plant growth has not been reported so far. RESULTS In this study, the function that CNPs promoted potassium uptake in BY-2 cells was established and the potassium accumulated in cells had a significant correlation with the fresh biomass of BY-2 cells. The K+ accumulation in cells increased with the increasing concentration of CNPs. The K+ influx reached high level after treatment with CNPs and was significantly higher than that of the control group and the negative group treated with K+ channels blocker, tetraethylammonium chloride (TEA+). The K+ accumulation was not reduced in the presence of CNPs inhibitors. In the presence of potassium channel blocker TEA+ or CNPs inhibitors, the NKT1 gene expression was changed compared with the control group. The CNPs were found to preferentially transport K+ than other cations determined by rectification of ion current assay (RIC) in a conical nanocapillary. CONCLUSIONS These results indicated that CNPs upregulated potassium gene expression to enhance K+ accumulation in BY-2 cells. Moreover, it was speculated that the CNPs simulated protein of ion channels via bulk of carboxyl for K+ permeating. These findings will provide support for improving plant growth by carbon nanoparticles.

中文翻译：

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碳纳米颗粒通过上调钾通道表达并模仿 BY-2 细胞中的生物离子通道来增强钾的吸收。

背景技术碳纳米粒子(CNPs)已被报道可促进植物生长，但CNPs增强植物生长钾吸收的机制尚未见报道。结果本研究确立了CNPs促进BY-2细胞钾摄取的功能，且细胞内钾积累与BY-2细胞新鲜生物量存在显着相关性。随着CNPs浓度的增加，细胞中K+的积累增加。CNPs治疗后K+流入达到高水平，并且显着高于K+通道阻滞剂氯化四乙铵（TEA+）治疗的对照组和阴性组。CNP 抑制剂存在时 K+ 积累并未减少。在钾通道阻滞剂TEA+或CNPs抑制剂存在下，NKT1基因表达与对照组相比发生变化。通过锥形纳米毛细管中的离子电流测定 (RIC) 整流测定，发现 CNP 比其他阳离子优先运输 K+。结论 这些结果表明，CNP 上调钾基因表达，从而增强 BY-2 细胞中 K+ 的积累。此外，据推测，CNP 通过大量羧基模拟离子通道的蛋白质以进行 K+ 渗透。这些发现将为通过碳纳米粒子改善植物生长提供支持。