Transcriptome analysis of leave samples in Arabidopsis seedlings whose roots were treated with chitin- and cellulose-nanofibers
Spent mushroom substrate (SMS) is one of the major agricultural wastes produced as a by-product of mushroom cultivation. The rise in consumption of mushrooms and cultivation using mushroom substrate has increased the produced amount of SMS, but most SMS is treated as industrial waste because effective utilization methods are unavailable. The SMS contains two structurally related polysaccharides: chitin derived from cultivated mushroom fungi and cellulose derived from substrate mainly composed of sawdust and rice bran. Recently, we have adapted the nanofibrillation method to the SMS for the conversion into a form of nanofiber dispersion, chitin/cellulose nanofiber complex (CCNFC), and found that CCNFC application induced disease resistance in Arabidopsis. This study aimed to figure out the mode of action of CCNFC to induce plant disease resistance by comparing transcriptomes of leave samples in Arabidopsis seedlings whose roots were treated with chitin, chitin nanofiber, cellulose nanofiber, and CCNFC using RNA-seq. The culture soil was mixed with an equal volume of 0.01% (w/v) water dispersions of chitin, chitin nanofiber, cellulose nanofiber, and CCNFC before sowing, and then Arabidopsis seedlings were grown for 7 weeks. Distilled water was treated for mixing with culture soil as control experiments. All leaf samples were harvested in triplicate containing leaves from independent 3 seedlings.