Assessment of Behavior of Rice Root Peroxidase in the Presence of Silver Nanoparticles

Abstract

Background Silver Nanoparticles (AgNPs) can change proteins function and structure. The increased production and high surface reactivity of silver nanoparticles, has interested researchers to study the interactions of these particles with biomolecules. Objectives The present study aimed to show the effects of AgNPs on rice plant root peroxidase enzyme and the interaction quality between silver nanoparticles and the enzyme. Materials and Methods Extracted peroxidase enzyme of rice plant root was treated by AgNPs at concentrations of 0, 20, 40, 80, 100mg/L for 2, 7 and 24 hours. The experiment was done with 15 treatments for measuring the peroxidase enzyme activity using the spectrophotometry method at a wavelength of 470. Results Low concentrations of AgNPs and short incubation times can have the maximum positive impact on the peroxidase activity, and in the present study the highest activity was seen at a concentration of 40 mg/L and two hours of incubation time. Conclusions This study suggests that changes of enzyme activity can occur as a result of the effect of silver nanoparticles on enzyme conformation, increase of reactive environment pH, and amount of substrate and enzyme stability.