Fig. 5: Amplified plant defence responses induced by SPc-loaded LNT.

a-c RNA-seq analysis to illustrate the plant defence responses induced by LNT/SPc complex. The tobacco seedlings sprayed with the solution of LNT (100 mg/L) or LNT/SPc complex were used to prepare RNA sequencing libraries. a KEGG and GO analysis of DEGs. DESeq was used to analyze the DEGs between two treatments, and a fold change of ≥ 2.0 and a false-discovery rate (FDR) of <0.01 were used as the screening conditions. b Analysis of DEGs with a volcano plot. c Heat maps of DEGs associated with pathogenesis-related protein, hypersensitive reaction, and reactive oxygen species production and homeostasis. Highly expressed genes are shown in red, whereas genes with low expression levels are shown in blue. d Validation of DEGs using qRT-PCR. The relative mRNA levels of target genes were normalized to the abundance of the actin gene. Relative biomass was quantified (n = 3 biological replicates). The asterisk indicates significant difference according to independent t test (two-sided, *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01 and ***p < 0.001). OLP (t = 10.69, df = 2, p = 0.009), CAT (t = 8.75, df = 2, p = 0.013), SRC2 (t = 83.15, df = 2, p < 0.001), PER1 (t = 6.95, df = 2, p = 0.020), HIR1 (t = 17.34, df = 2, p = 0.003), WRKY53 (t = 8.94, df = 2, p = 0.012) and PHO1 (t = 27.44, df = 2, p = 0.001). Bars represent the mean ± SEM. e SA content, SOD activity and CAT activity in tobacco seedlings treated with ddH₂O, SPc (100 mg/L), LNT and LNT/SPc complex. Relative biomass was quantified (n = 3 biological replicates). Different letters above each bar indicate significant differences at p < 0.05 as determined by one-way ANOVA with Tukey HSD test (SA content: F_{3, 8} = 151.70, p < 0.001; SOD activity: F_{3, 8} = 11.77, p = 0.003; CAT activity: F_{3, 8} = 33.68, p < 0.001). Bars represent the mean ± SEM. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.