Functionalized carbon nanotube toxicity in Arabidopsis leaves

ABSTRACT: Polyethilenimine (PEI) functionalized single walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) and carbon-based nanomaterials enable delivery of DNA and RNA in plants. Given the broad-scale use of PEI-functionalized nanomaterials in plants, we sought to investigate the reaction of plant tissues to treatment with PEI-SWNTs and pristine SWNTs. To this end, we infiltrated Arabidopsis thaliana leaves with pristine single walled carbon nanotubes used in RNA silencing applications (SWNTs) and polyethyleneimine-functionalized SWNTs used for plasmid DNA delivery (PEI-SWNTs). We used Arabidopsis as it is a well characterized model plant, for which genomic and detailed gene function information is readily available. To minimize the effects caused by the introduction of exogenous nucleic acids, in SWNT preparations we used single stranded RNA targeting Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP) with no target sequence in the Arabidopsis genome, and a plasmid that expresses GFP in PEI-SWNT preparations. For our experiments herein, we used ~25-50 fold higher concentrations of SWNTs and PEI-SWNTs compared to standard concentrations used in biomolecule delivery assays. Water-infiltrated plant leaves served as a negative control to distinguish between the SWNT-specific response and the response to the infiltration process itself. We performed RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) with RNA extracted from leaves two days after infiltration to identify changes in the leaf transcriptomic profile in response to the three treatments, compared to non-infiltrated leaves.

ORGANISM(S): Arabidopsis thaliana

PROVIDER: GSE172278 | GEO | 2021/12/29

REPOSITORIES: GEO