*4.9. Gene Expression Analysis in Arabidopsis*

The qRT-PCR was performed on RNA extracted from leaf samples (Arabidopsis) and root samples (sesame). The genes *Actin 2* (*AT3G18780*) and *Actin 7* (*SIN\_1006268*) were used as the internal control for Arabidopsis and sesame, respectively. Specific primer pairs of the assayed genes were designed using the Primer5.0 software [107] (Table S1). Samples in the control condition (non-stress) were used as reference and data are presented as relative transcript level based on the 2−∆∆*C*<sup>t</sup> method [108].
