Investigation of the biochemical and molecular effects of silver nanoparticles on M. officinalis L. seedlings grown under in vitro conditions

In this study, biochemical and molecular changes such as total phenolic content by Folin method, phenolic profiles by HPLC, antimicrobial activities by Microwell-dilution method, HIV-1 RT inhibition capacities by Reverse Transcriptase Analysis Kit (colorimetric) and changes in PAL gene expression level by qPCR method were determined in methanol extracts obtained from M. officinalis L. seedlings grown under in vitro conditions and exposed to different concentrations of AgNP stress. As a result, it was observed that AgNP applications, when compared to the control, showed differences according to the concentration in the investigated parameters and were mostly high, the highest total phenolic substance amount (68.250 mg GAE/g plant), the dominant phenolic rosmarinic acid amount (41.059 µg phenolic/mg plant) and HIV-1 RT inhibition (39.65%) were higher in 5 mg/L AgNP application, the most effective MIC value (2500 μg/mL) was at 5, 10 and 20 mg/L AgNP concentrations, and the highest PAL gene expression was observed at 50 mg/L AgNP concentration with a 42.16-fold increase