Biogenic credibility of zirconium nanoparticles: boosting growth and battling pathogens

Nano agents play a dual role as plant growth promoters and bactericide holds immense potential for sustainable agricultural practices and hence qualifies to be a highly relevant dataset. The current study, focuses on plant extract aided synthesis of zirconium oxide nanoparticles, designed to analyze tomato plant growth by optimizing size (within 100 nm) and stability of nanoparticles. Concentration of nano ZrO 2 was optimized, following a comparative analysis of responses across a series of low to moderate concentrations. 150 mg/L of nano ZrO 2 consistently yielded the highest response of increased root and shoot growth and was therefore determined to be the optimum concentration. However, higher dosages exhibited inhibitory effects and toxicity. The viability of the cell was detected when the plant supernatant was treated with 4′,6-diamidino-2-phenylindole and observed using a fluorescence microscope. Antimicrobial properties of nano ZrO 2 negatively impacted the plant bacteria Pseudomonas syringae and Xanthomonas campestris leading to an inhibition that raised with increasing concentration, leading to zone measuring 0.41 ± 0.01 mm and 0.73 ± 0.04 mm respectively, at 400 mg/mL along with fungi Aspergillus niger and Alternaria solani were inhibited to 99 % and 49.3 % respectively, at 5 mg/mL. Given the need for crop production prediction, the data for the first time ever highlights the potential of nano ZrO 2 nanoparticles as growth-promoting agents in sustainable agriculture through antibacterial and antifungal activity.