Expression data from 29-day old Arabidopsis plants

Metal oxide engineered nanoparticles, which are widely used in diverse applications, are known to impact terrestrial plants. These nanoparticles have a potential to induce changes in plant tissue transcriptomes, and thereby the productivity. Here we looked at how the two commonly used nanoparticles, nano-titania (TiO2) and nano-ceria (CeO2) can impact the underlying mechanisms associated plant growth at genome level. We used microarrays to detail the global programme of gene expression underlying various physiological processes associated with growth and development, and identified distinct classes of up-regulated genes during this process. 29 day old Arabidopsis plants were selected for RNA extraction from roots and rosette leaves, followed by hybridization on Affymetrix microarrays. Arabidopsis plants were exposed twice during the germination stage (Days 0 and 4), and once during the primary rosette stage (Day 17), to 500mg/L concentration of nano-titania and nano-ceria, followed by extraction of RNA from 29-day old plant tissues (roots and rosette leaves) for Microarray analysis. 0.1mM KCl was used as control for nano-titania, whereas sterilized millipore water was used as control for nano-ceria.