Transcriptomic response of in vitro potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) to piezoelectric ultrasound

As part of a wider project to assess the impact of ultrasound on in vitro plant growth, this paper aimed to determine whether the application of piezoelectric ultrasound (PE-US) would induce changes to the transcriptome of in vitro potato (Solanum tuberosum L.). After exposing explants (single-node segments with a single leaf) to PE-US (35 kHz; 70 W) for 20 min, the effect of this stressor was determined at 0 h, 24 h, 48 h, 1 w and 4 w to assess the possible immediate and residual effects of PE-US on the potato transcriptome. Overall design: Total RNA was purified from the samples as three biological replicates. rRNA was removed from the 30 total RNA samples and the three biological replicates were pooled. Ten mRNA libraries were derived from the three biological replicates of five treatments and five controls. Deep sequencing (150 bp paired-end reads, expected data volume was 100 M reads/sample) was conducted.