Increasing usage of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) in different industrial areas inevitably leads to their release into the environment. Thus, living organisms, including plants, may be exposed to a direct contact with nanoparticles (NPs). Despite the growing amount of research on this topic, our knowledge about NPs uptake by plants and their influence on different developmental processes is still insufficient. The first physical barrier for NPs penetration to the plant body is a cell wall which protects cytoplasm from external factors and environmental stresses. The absence of a cell wall may facilitate the internalization of various particles including NPs. Our studies have shown that AuNPs, independently of their surface charge, did not cross the cell wall of Arabidopsis thaliana (L.) roots. However, the research carried out with using light and transmission electron microscope revealed that AuNPs with different surface charge caused diverse changes in the root's histology and ultrastructure. Therefore, we verified whether this is only the wall which protects cells against particles penetration and for this purpose we used protoplasts culture. It has been shown that plasma membrane (PM) is not a barrier for positively charged (+) AuNPs and negatively charged (-) AuNPs, which passage to the cell.

Department of Cell Biology Faculty of Biology and Environmental Protection University of Silesia in Katowice 28 Jagiellońska Street 40 032 Katowice Poland

Institute of Materials Science Faculty of Computer Science and Materials Science University of Silesia in Katowice 75 Pułku Piechoty Street 1a Chorzów 41 500 Poland

Institute of Materials Science Faculty of Computer Science and Materials Science University of Silesia in Katowice 75 Pułku Piechoty Street 1a Chorzów 41 500 Poland Department of Physics University of Hradec Králové Hradec Králové 500 03 Czech Republic

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