The effect and mechanism of melatonin‐trehalose‐selenium nanoparticles in alleviating the phytotoxicity of butachlor in rice
Chunmei Yang, Jiang Li, Tao Su, Tian Wang, Limin Liang, Xiaodan Di, Zhihui Liu, Jing An, Yong ChenAbstract
BACKGROUND
Nanoparticles show a great potential in enhancing crop stress tolerance, but their role in mitigating herbicide damage to rice remains unclear.
RESULTS
This study synthesized melatonin‐trehalose‐selenium nanoparticles (MT‐SeNPs) with 21 nm particle size, exhibited good stability and in vitro antioxidant activity. Under butachlor stress, compared with water priming, MT‐SeNPs priming significantly alleviated the phytotoxic symptoms in rice and reduced butachlor residues by 21.72–50.55%. Integrated physiological and multi‐omics analyses revealed that MT‐SeNPs activated phenylpropanoid biosynthesis by upregulating the expression of lignin‐biosynthetic genes, increasing the activity of phenylalanine ammonia‐lyase, cinnamoyl‐CoA reductase, cinnamyl alcohol dehydrogenase, peroxidase enzymes (the enzyme activity increased by 22.94–49.57%, 56.02–56.60%, 26.20–37.08% and 41.30–152.66% at 3 to 5 days after butachlor stress, respectively), and promoting the accumulation of
CONCLUSION
MT‐SeNPs may mitigate butachlor phytotoxicity by reinforcing cell‐wall barriers and accelerating herbicide metabolism. This study provides a new strategy for using nanomaterials to relieve herbicide damage. © 2026 Society of Chemical Industry.