Proteome analysis of leaves of the desiccation-tolerant grass, Sporobolus stapfianus, in response to dehydration

Abstract

Drought and its affects on agricultural production is a serious issue facing global efforts to increase food supplies and ensure food security for the growing world population. Understanding how plants respond to dehydration is an important prerequisite for developing strategies for crop improvement in drought tolerance. This has proved to be a difficult task as all of the current research plant models do not tolerate cellular dehydration well and, like all crops, they succumb to the effects of a relatively small water deficit of -4MPa or less. For these reasons many researchers have started to investigate the usefulness of resurrection plants, plants that can survive extremes of dehydration to the point of desiccation, to provide answers as to how plants tolerate water loss. We have chosen to investigate the leaf proteome response of the desiccation-tolerant grass Sporobolus stapfianus Gandoger to dehydration to a water content that encompasses the initiation of the cellular protection response evident in these plants. We used a combination of two-dimensional Difference Gel Electrophoresis (2D-DIGE) and liquid chromatography-tandem-mass spectrometry to compare the proteomes of young leaves from hydrated plants to those dehydrated to approximately 30% relative water content. High-resolution 2D-DIGE revealed 96 significantly different proteins and 82 of these spots yielded high-quality protein assignments by tandem-mass spectrometry. Inferences from the bioinformatic annotations of these proteins revealed the possible involvement of protein kinase-based signaling cascades and brassinosteroid involvement in the regulation of the cellular protection response. Enzymes of glycolysis, both cytoplasmic and plastidic, as well as five enzymes of the Calvin cycle increased in abundance. However, the RuBisCO large subunit and associated proteins were reduced, indicating a loss of carbon fixation but a continued need to supply the necessary carbon skeletons for the constituents involved in cell protection. Changes in abundance of several proteins that appear to have a function in chromatin structure and function indicate that these structures undergo significant changes as a result of dehydration. These observations give a unique "snap-shot" of the proteome of S. stapfianus at a critical point in the passage towards desiccation.