Nanoscale selenium confers broad-spectrum antifungal activity and reprograms antioxidant, phenylpropanoid and hormonal defense metabolism in tomato.

Selenium nanomaterials inhibit mycelial growth and significantly reduce disease severity in tomato against Colletotrichum gloeosporioides, Fusarium oxysporum, and Fusarium solani.

• Why it matters: Sustainable crop protection needs antifungal options that also preserve plant function and clarify how host defense metabolism is reprogrammed across tissues and pathogens.
• What they did: SeNMs were tested for concentration-dependent antifungal effects and for impacts on tomato growth, chlorophyll, gas exchange, PSII efficiency, oxidative markers, antioxidant/phenylpropanoid enzymes, hormone profiles, and defense gene expression.
• The result: SeNMs reduced infection-associated physiological damage and oxidative injury (H2O2, malondialdehyde, proline), restored shoot antioxidant and lignin responses, amplified root responses, and lowered root salicylic acid and abscisic acid under Fusarium infections.

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