Gene expression profile during cadmium hormesis in Solanum lycopersicum

Hormesis is a biphasic dose response in which the plant exhibits stimulatory responses to a low dose of a toxic substance and inhibitory effects to a higher dose.It is considered as an adaptive mechanism by the organism and is used in fields like agriculture to increase productivity. Cadmium is a highly toxic heavy metal contaminant detrimental to plants in even small quantities. However, certain doses of cadmium exposure have been seen to induce hormetic behaviour in plants, improving their growth and development. Even though this phenomenon is studied extensively, the exact molecular mechanism behind it is not yet fully explored. Hence, to get a more elaborate detail about this phenomenon, we have done an RNA-Seq profiling of tomato plants after treating them with one hormetic dose (1micromolar Cd) and stress dose (50 micromolar Cd) of cadmium for 5 days and compared it with the control.