Proteomic study related to vascular connections in watermelon scions grafted onto bottle-gourd rootstock under different light intensities

PLoS One. 2015 Mar 19;10(3):e0120899. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0120899. eCollection 2015.

Abstract

Although grafting is broadly used in the production of crops, no information is available about the proteins involved in vascular connections between rootstock and scion. Similarly, proteome changes under the light intensities widely used for grafted seedlings are of practical use. The objective of this study was to determine the proteome of vascular connections using watermelon (Citrullus vulgaris Schrad.) 'Sambok Honey' and 'Speed' as the scion and bottle gourd (Lagenaria siceraria Stanld.) 'RS Dongjanggun' as the rootstock grown under different light intensities (25, 50, 75 and 100 μmol m-2 s-1). Our proteomic analysis revealed 24 and 27 differentially expressed proteins in 'Sambok Honey' and 'Speed', respectively, under different light intensities. The identified proteins were largely involved in ion binding, amino acid metabolism, transcriptional regulation and defense response. The enhancement of ion-binding, transcriptional regulation, amino acid metabolism, and defense response proteins suggests a strengthening of the connection between the rootstock and scion under high light intensity. Indeed, the accumulation of key enzymes in the biological processes described above appears to play an important role in the vascular connections of grafted seedlings. Moreover, it appears that 100 μmol m-2 s-1 results in better protein expression responses in grafted seedlings.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Agriculture
  • Biomass
  • Citrullus / growth & development
  • Citrullus / metabolism*
  • Cucurbitaceae / growth & development
  • Cucurbitaceae / metabolism
  • Electrophoresis, Gel, Two-Dimensional
  • Light
  • Plant Proteins / metabolism*
  • Plant Roots
  • Proteome / analysis*
  • Proteome / metabolism
  • Proteomics*
  • Spectrometry, Mass, Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption-Ionization*

Substances

  • Plant Proteins
  • Proteome

Grants and funding

This work was supported by Korea Institute of Planning and Evaluation for Technology in Food, Agriculture Forestry and Fisheries (Project No. 312034-04). SM, CHK, PS, AM and YGP were supported by a scholarship from BK21 programme, Ministry of Education, Korea. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.