Journal Article

Morphological and Proteomic Responses of Eruca sativa Exposed to Silver Nanoparticles or Silver Nitrate

Domingo, Guido, Marsoni, Milena, Bracale, Marcella, Espen, Luca, Prinsi, Bhakti, Vannini, Candida, Onelli, Elisabetta

2013

Overview

Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) are widely used in commercial products, and there are growing concerns about their impact on the environment. Information about the molecular interaction of AgNPs with plants is lacking. To increase our understanding of the mechanisms involved in plant responses to AgNPs and to differentiate between particle specific and ionic silver effects we determined the morphological and proteomic changes induced in Eruca sativa (commonly called rocket) in response to AgNPs or AgNO3. Seedlings were treated for 5 days with different concentrations of AgNPs or AgNO3. A similar increase in root elongation was observed when seedlings were exposed to 10 mg Ag L(1) of either PVP-AgNPs or AgNO3. At this concentration we performed electron microscopy investigations and 2-dimensional electrophoresis (2DE) proteomic profiling. The low level of overlap of differentially expressed proteins indicates that AgNPs and AgNO3 cause different plant responses. Both Ag treatments cause changes in proteins involved in the redox regulation and in the sulfur metabolism. These responses could play an important role to maintain cellular homeostasis. Only the AgNP exposure cause the alteration of some proteins related to the endoplasmic reticulum and vacuole indicating these two organelles as targets of the AgNPs action. These data add further evidences that the effects of AgNPs are not simply due to the release of Ag ions.

• Publisher: Public Library of Science,Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subject: Analysis of Variance / Arabidopsis / Arabidopsis thaliana / Biology / Brassicaceae - anatomy & histology / Brassicaceae - drug effects / Brassicaceae - metabolism / Chromatography, Liquid / Cucumis sativus / DNA Primers - genetics / Dose-Response Relationship, Drug / Electron microscopy / Electrophoresis, Gel, Two-Dimensional / Elongation / Endoplasmic reticulum / Endoplasmic Reticulum - metabolism / Environmental impact / Eruca sativa / Exposure / Gene expression / Homeostasis / Hordeum vulgare / Low level / Materials Science / Medicine / Metabolism / Metal Nanoparticles - toxicity / Microscopy / Microscopy, Electron, Transmission / Nanomaterials / Nanoparticles / Organelles / Plant Roots - drug effects / Plant Roots - growth & development / Proteins / Proteome - metabolism / Quantum dots / Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction / Seedlings / Seeds / Silver / Silver - toxicity / Silver nitrate / Silver Nitrate - toxicity / Studies / Sulfur / Tandem Mass Spectrometry