The long-term effect of carbohydrate-coated nCeO2 treatment on seed protein profile in two herbaceous weedy annuals

Cerium oxide nanoparticles (nCeO2) are attracting continuously growing attention due to their unique properties - their facile transition between Ce3+ and Ce4+ oxidation states. nCeO2 found application in the industry, cosmetics, agriculture, electronics, etc. Their final accumulation in the environment creates new environmental stress factors for living organisms. To improve their solubility, nCeO2 were coated with monosaccharide - glucose and microbial exopolysaccharides - levan and pullulan to obtain glucose-, levan-, and pullulan-coated nCeO2 (G-CeO2, L-CeO2, and P-CeO2). The potential long-term effect of nCeO2 on vegetation was studied in two herbaceous weedy annuals - Sinapis alba and Chenopodium rubrum. It was suggested earlier that the mechanism of maternal environmental effects, that persists for several generations, can act through relative seed protein composition representing an “archive“ of environmental changes experienced by mother plants during their lives. Treatment with nCeO2 of Sinapis alba and Chenopodium rubrum seeds during germination, on total protein content (TPC) and protein profile of seeds produced in two subsequent offspring generations grown in the greenhouse, were investigated. The TPC mainly showed no significant differences, both between treatments and between subsequent generations, in both species. SDS-PAGE electrophoresis showed the presence of 15 protein bands, molecular weight 10 - 140 kDa, in all seed samples of Sinapis alba or Chenopodium rubrum, respectively. We showed that nCeO2 treatment during the very early development of mother plants (germination) has a long-term effect, visible in the difference in width and intensity of seed protein bands of seeds sampled in two subsequent offspring generations.