Selective penetration of fullerenol through pea seed coats mitigates osmosis‐repressed germination via chromatin remodeling and transcriptional reprograming

Abstract

BackgroundAlteration of chromatin accessibility plays an important role in plant responses to abiotic stress. Carbon‐based nanomaterials (CBNMs) have gained growing interest in agriculture due to their potential impact on crop productivity, showcasing effects on plant biological processes at transcriptional levels, yet their impacts chromatin accessibility remains unknown.ResultsIn this study, we found that fullerenol can penetrate seed coat of pea to mitigate the reduction of seed germination caused by osmotic stress. RNA‐seq revealed that the application of fullerenol resorted the high expression of genes related to oxidoreduction to the normal level. ATAC‐seq corroborated that fullerenol application reduced the overall levels of chromatin accessibility of numerous genes, including those related to environmental signaling, transcriptional regulation, and metabolism.ConclusionCollectively, our study suggests that fullerenol alleviates osmotic stress on various fronts, encompassing antioxidant, transcriptional, and epigenetic levels, which advances our understanding on the working mechanism of this nanomaterial within plant cells.This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.