Expression Profiling of Maize Suspension Cells Treated with Metcamifen Herbicide Safener

Safeners such as metcamifen and benoxacor are widely used in maize to enhance the selectivity of herbicides through the induction of key detoxifying enzymes such as cytochromes P450. Transcriptomic studies in Black Mexican Sweetcorn (BMS) found that there was considerable overlap in the genes significantly up-regulated by treatment with metcamifen and benoxacor, with just over a third of transcripts induced by both safeners at 30 min and 90 min, rising to 45% by 240 min. Benoxacor induced more transcripts at the earlier time points, but by 240 min, metcamifen was the most effective enhancer. Overall design: Changes in the transcriptome of BMS cultures exposed to metcamifen (5 micromolar) or benoxacor (5 micromolar) were determined as compared with control cells treated with the carrier solvent DMSO. Cultures were sampled at 30 mins, 90 mins and 420 mins after dosing and subjected to RNA-seq analysis. Three biological replicates were sequenced for each sample for a total of 27 samples.