iTRAQ-based quantitative proteome analysis reveals metabolic changes between a cleistogamous wheat mutant and its wild-type wheat counterpart

PeerJ. 2019 Jun 17:7:e7104. doi: 10.7717/peerj.7104. eCollection 2019.

Abstract

Background: Wheat is one of the most important staple crops worldwide. Fusarium head blight (FHB) severely affects wheat yield and quality. A novel bread wheat mutant, ZK001, characterized as cleistogamic was isolated from a non-cleistogamous variety Yumai 18 (YM18) through static magnetic field mutagenesis. Cleistogamy is a promising strategy for controlling FHB. However, little is known about the mechanism of cleistogamy in wheat.

Methods: We performed a FHB resistance test to identify the FHB infection rate of ZK001. We also measured the agronomic traits of ZK001 and the starch and total soluble sugar contents of lodicules in YM18 and ZK001. Finally, we performed comparative studies at the proteome level between YM18 and ZK001 based on the proteomic technique of isobaric tags for relative and absolute quantification.

Results: The infection rate of ZK001 was lower than that of its wild-type and Aikang 58. The abnormal lodicules of ZK001 lost the ability to push the lemma and palea apart during the flowering stage. Proteome analysis showed that the main differentially abundant proteins (DAPs) were related to carbohydrate metabolism, protein transport, and calcium ion binding. These DAPs may work together to regulate cellular homeostasis, osmotic pressure and the development of lodicules. This hypothesis is supported by the analysis of starch, soluble sugar content in the lodicules as well as the results of Quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction.

Conclusions: Proteomic analysis has provided comprehensive information that should be useful for further research on the lodicule development mechanism in wheat. The ZK001 mutant is optimal for studying flower development in wheat and could be very important for FHB resistant projects via conventional crossing.

Keywords: Bread wheat; Cleistogamous; Fusarium head blight; Lodicule; iTRAQ.

Grants and funding

This work was funded by the Science and Technology Service program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (KFJ-STS-ZDTP-002), the Key Program of the 13th five-year plan, Hefei Institutes of Physical Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CASHIPS) (No. kp-2017-21), and the Major Special Project of Anhui Province (16030701103). This study is also supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Anhui Provincial (1408085QC64), the Opening Fund of State Key Laboratory of Crop Genetics and Germplasm Enhancement (ZW2013003). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.