Accounting for ALA Natural Mutations Enhances the Efficiency of Graphene Oxide Nanopriming in Bar-Modified Arabidopsis

Environmental stress poses significant challenges to global agriculture, highlighting the need for resilient crops with optimized stress responses. Nanopriming and genetic modification technologies offer promising solutions. However, the differential effects of nanopriming on genetically modified (GM) and wild-type (WT) Plants remain unexplored. Using natural α-linolenic acid (ALA) metabolism mutations as a reference, genetic variation influences resilience under graphene oxide (GO) priming is examined in Arabidopsis thaliana. GO priming increased chlorophyll content by 91.6% in WT Plants and 29.6% in GM (bar-gene) Plants. Photosynthetic efficiency and quantum yield improved in the WT Plants but declined in the GM Plants. ALA metabolism mutations exacerbate lipid metabolism disruptions in GM Plants, including altered jasmonic acid signaling and lipid composition, which compromise chloroplast integrity. Notably, transgenerational effects are observed in GM Plants, with F1 seeds demonstrating dynamic epigenetic regulation of ALA metabolic genes, underscoring the influence of priming on stress resilience across generations. ALA supplementation enhanced the photosynthetic performance and chlorophyll content in WT and GM Plants, with the GM Plants exhibiting a significant increase of ≈60%. These findings emphasize the need for tailored nanopriming strategies that consider genetic variation and metabolic trade-offs, thereby advancing the development of resilient crops for sustainable agriculture.

genetically modified plants; graphene oxide; nanopriming; natural variation; stress resilience.