Changes in the leaf proteome profile of Withania somnifera (L.) Dunal in response to Alternaria alternata infection

PLoS One. 2017 Jun 2;12(6):e0178924. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0178924. eCollection 2017.

Abstract

Withania somnifera is a high value medicinal plant which is used against large number of ailments. The medicinal properties of the plant attributes to a wide array of important secondary metabolites. The plant is predominantly infected with leaf spot pathogen Alternaria alternata, which leads to substantial biodeterioration of pharmaceutically important metabolites. To develop an effective strategy to combat this disease, proteomics based approach could be useful. Hence, in the present study, three different protein extraction methods tris-buffer based, phenol based and trichloroacetic acid-acetone (TCA-acetone) based method were comparatively evaluated for two-dimensional electrophoresis (2-DE) analysis of W. somnifera. TCA-acetone method was found to be most effective and was further used to identify differentially expressed proteins in response to fungal infection. Thirty-eight differentially expressed proteins were identified by matrix assisted laser desorption/ionization time of flight-mass spectrometry (MALDI TOF/TOF MS/MS). The known proteins were categorized into eight different groups based on their function and maximum proteins belonged to energy and metabolism, cell structure, stress and defense and RNA/DNA categories. Differential expression of some key proteins were also crosschecked at transcriptomic level by using qRT-PCR and were found to be consistent with the 2-DE data. These outcomes enable us to evaluate modifications that take place at the proteomic level during a compatible host pathogen interaction. The comparative proteome analysis conducted in this paper revealed the involvement of many key proteins in the process of pathogenesis and further investigation of these identified proteins could assist in the discovery of new strategies for the development of pathogen resistance in the plant.

MeSH terms

  • Alternaria / physiology*
  • Electrophoresis, Gel, Two-Dimensional
  • Gene Expression Regulation, Plant
  • Host-Pathogen Interactions
  • Plant Diseases / genetics*
  • Plant Diseases / microbiology
  • Plant Leaves / genetics*
  • Plant Leaves / microbiology*
  • Plant Proteins / analysis
  • Plant Proteins / genetics*
  • Proteomics
  • Spectrometry, Mass, Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption-Ionization
  • Tandem Mass Spectrometry
  • Withania / genetics*
  • Withania / microbiology*

Substances

  • Plant Proteins

Grants and funding

PJ received supporting in the form of a salary from Life Science Group, Bio-rad Laboratories (India) Pvt. Ltd. The funder had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. The specific roles of this author are articulated in the 'author contributions' section.