ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Microbiol.
Sec. Microbe and Virus Interactions with Plants
Transcriptome analysis of Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato DAPP-PG 215 in response to silver nanoparticles exposure
Provisionally accepted
Benedetta Orfei1
Joël F Pothier2
Luca Scotti3
Antonio Aceto4
Chiaraluce Moretti1*
Roberto Buonaurio1
Theo H.M. Smits2*- 1University of Perugia, Perugia, Italy
- 2ZHAW Zurcher Hochschule fur Angewandte Wissenschaften Life Sciences und Facility Management, Wädenswil, Switzerland
- 3IIS “Alessandrini-Marino, Teramo, Italy
- 4Teramo, Teramo, Italy
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Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) are one of the most promising options for the control of bacterial pathogens. The effectiveness of AgNPs has been proven by several recent research studies in which toxicity against a broad range of human and plant pathogenic bacteria was observed, even when used at low doses compared to other conventional bactericides. Nevertheless, the antibacterial mechanism of AgNPs is yet to be completely understood. This study investigated the first response of Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato strain DAPP-PG 215, the causative agent of bacterial speck disease of tomato, to AgNPs. Gene expression of P. syringae pv. tomato in response to AgNPs was observed after 10 and 30 minutes of exposure. A total of 78 and 66 genes were identified as differentially expressed, respectively. Gene ontology and KEGG pathway enrichment analysis revealed a high representation of genes related to stress resistance, energy metabolism, and metal ion binding proteins, with different transporters involved. Validation of four selected genes by quantitative RT-PCR analysis, confirmed these observations. These results not only supported initial findings on the antimicrobial action of AgNPs but also suggested a significant impact of different heavy metal and toxin transporters in the silver detoxification mechanism of bacteria.
Keywords: Heavy metal resistance, RNA-Seq, nanoparticle, antibacterial mechanism, biocontrol
Received: 28 Sep 2025; Accepted: 27 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Orfei, Pothier, Scotti, Aceto, Moretti, Buonaurio and Smits. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Chiaraluce Moretti
Theo H.M. Smits
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