Response mechanisms induced by exposure to high temperature in anthers from thermo-tolerant and thermo-sensitive tomato plants: A proteomic perspective

PLoS One. 2018 Jul 19;13(7):e0201027. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0201027. eCollection 2018.

Abstract

Constant global warming is one of the most detrimental environmental factors for agriculture causing significant losses in productivity as heat stress (HS) conditions damage plant growth and reproduction. In flowering plants such as tomato, HS has drastic repercussions on development and functionality of male reproductive organs and pollen. Response mechanisms to HS in tomato anthers and pollen have been widely investigated by transcriptomics; on the contrary, exhaustive proteomic evidences are still lacking. In this context, a differential proteomic study was performed on tomato anthers collected from two genotypes (thermo-tolerant and thermo-sensitive) to explore stress response mechanisms and identify proteins possibly associated to thermo-tolerance. Results showed that HS mainly affected energy and amino acid metabolism and nitrogen assimilation and modulated the expression of proteins involved in assuring protein quality and ROS detoxification. Moreover, proteins potentially associated to thermo-tolerant features, such as glutamine synthetase, S-adenosylmethionine synthase and polyphenol oxidase, were identified.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Flowers / growth & development
  • Flowers / metabolism
  • Heat-Shock Response / physiology*
  • Hot Temperature*
  • Plant Proteins / metabolism*
  • Pollen / growth & development
  • Pollen / metabolism
  • Proteome / metabolism*
  • Proteomics / methods*
  • Solanum lycopersicum / growth & development
  • Solanum lycopersicum / metabolism*

Substances

  • Plant Proteins
  • Proteome

Grants and funding

This work was supported by funding from the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Scientific Research (GenoPOM Project, art 12 DM 593/00) to RAS and SG. The funder had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.