Molecular responses of genetically modified maize to abiotic stresses as determined through proteomic and metabolomic analyses

PLoS One. 2017 Feb 28;12(2):e0173069. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0173069. eCollection 2017.

Abstract

Some genetically modified (GM) plants have transgenes that confer tolerance to abiotic stressors. Meanwhile, other transgenes may interact with abiotic stressors, causing pleiotropic effects that will affect the plant physiology. Thus, physiological alteration might have an impact on the product safety. However, routine risk assessment (RA) analyses do not evaluate the response of GM plants exposed to different environmental conditions. Therefore, we here present a proteome profile of herbicide-tolerant maize, including the levels of phytohormones and related compounds, compared to its near-isogenic non-GM variety under drought and herbicide stresses. Twenty differentially abundant proteins were detected between GM and non-GM hybrids under different water deficiency conditions and herbicide sprays. Pathway enrichment analysis showed that most of these proteins are assigned to energetic/carbohydrate metabolic processes. Among phytohormones and related compounds, different levels of ABA, CA, JA, MeJA and SA were detected in the maize varieties and stress conditions analysed. In pathway and proteome analyses, environment was found to be the major source of variation followed by the genetic transformation factor. Nonetheless, differences were detected in the levels of JA, MeJA and CA and in the abundance of 11 proteins when comparing the GM plant and its non-GM near-isogenic variety under the same environmental conditions. Thus, these findings do support molecular studies in GM plants Risk Assessment analyses.

MeSH terms

  • Chromatography, Liquid
  • Droughts
  • Metabolomics / methods
  • Plants, Genetically Modified / genetics
  • Plants, Genetically Modified / metabolism*
  • Proteomics / methods*
  • Tandem Mass Spectrometry
  • Zea mays / genetics
  • Zea mays / metabolism*

Grants and funding

The authors would like to thank CAPES for scholarships provided to RB and CNPq for the scholarship to VV and RON. Financial support was provided by The Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Norway) under the GenØk South-America Research Hub grant FAPEU 077/2012. The authors also thank the Metabolomic Centre of the Department of Biochemistry (North-West University, South Africa) for quantitative analysis of phytohormones and related compounds. This was a joint project between UFSC and GenØk – Center for Biosafety.