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Transgenerational effects of chromium stress at phenotypic and molecular level in Arabidopsis thaliana
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  • Ilaria Colzi,
  • Cristina Gonnelli,
  • Chiara Vergata,
  • Andrea Coppi,
  • Maria Beatrice Castellani,
  • Gabriele Golia,
  • Antonio Giovino,
  • Matteo Buti,
  • Tommaso Sabato,
  • Maurizio Capuana,
  • Alessio Aprile,
  • Luigi De Bellis,
  • Angela Cicatelli,
  • Francesco Guarino,
  • Stefano Castiglione,
  • Vasileios Fotopoulos,
  • Andreas Ioannou,
  • Federico Martinelli
Ilaria Colzi
University of Florence
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Cristina Gonnelli
Università degli Studi di Firenze
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Chiara Vergata
University of Florence
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Andrea Coppi
University of Florence
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Maria Beatrice Castellani
University of Florence
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Gabriele Golia
University of Florence
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Antonio Giovino
CREA
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Matteo Buti
University of Florence
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Tommaso Sabato
University of Florence
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Maurizio Capuana
National Research Council
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Alessio Aprile
University of Salento
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Luigi De Bellis
Universita del Salento
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Angela Cicatelli
University of Salerno
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Francesco Guarino
University of Salerno
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Stefano Castiglione
University of Salerno
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Vasileios Fotopoulos
Cyprus University of Technology
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Andreas Ioannou
Cyprus University of Technology
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Federico Martinelli
University of Florence

Corresponding Author:federico.martinelli@unifi.it

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Abstract

In this work, we describe the results obtained in the model plant, Arabidopsis thaliana, to investigate the transgenerational phenotypic effects of chromium (Cr) stress. F1 generation from parents grown in both acute and chronic stress showed significant higher levels of the maximal effective concentration (EC50) than F1 from unstressed parents. In addition, both F1 from Cr stressed parents showed higher germination rate under Cr presence and F1 from parents cultivated under chronic stress displayed reduction of hydroxide peroxide levels under Cr stress compared to control. At lower Cr stress level, F1 resulted to promptly activate more genes involved in Cr stress responses than F0 implying a memory linked to a transgenerational priming. F1 modulated significantly less genes than F0 at later stage and at higher Cr levels implying a memory leading to Cr stress adaptation. Several members of bHlH transcription factors were induced by Cr stress in F1 and not in F0, such as bHlH100, ORG2 and ORG3. F1 optimized gene expression towards pathways linked to iron starvation response. A model of transcriptional regulation of transgenerational memory to Cr stress was developed and eventually applied for other heavy metal stresses.