Analysis of the mechanism of Ricinus communis L. tolerance to Cd metal based on proteomics and metabolomics

Zhao Huibo; Zhao Yong; Luo Rui; Li Guorui; Di Jianjun; Wen Qi; Liang Xiaotian; Yin Mingda; Wen Yanpeng; Wang Zhiyan; Huang Fenglan

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0272750

Analysis of the mechanism of Ricinus communis L. tolerance to Cd metal based on proteomics and metabolomics

PLoS One. 2023 Mar 2;18(3):e0272750. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0272750. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Zhao Huibo¹, Zhao Yong^{1

2}, Luo Rui¹, Li Guorui¹, Di Jianjun¹, Wen Qi¹, Liang Xiaotian¹, Yin Mingda¹, Wen Yanpeng¹, Wang Zhiyan¹, Huang Fenglan^{1

3

4

5

6

7}

Affiliations

¹ School of Life Science and Food, Inner Mongolia University for Nationalities, Tongliao, Inner Mongolia, China.
² College of Life Sciences, Baicheng Normal University, Baicheng, Jilin, 137099, China.
³ Key Laboratory of Castor Breeding of the State Ethnic Affairs Commission, Tongliao, Inner Mongolia, China.
⁴ Inner Mongolia Key Laboratory of Castor Breeding, Tongliao, Inner Mongolia, China.
⁵ Inner Mongolia Engineering Research Center of Industrial Technology Innovation of Castor, Tongliao, Inner Mongolia, China.
⁶ Inner Mongolia Industrial Engineering Research Center of Universities for Castor, Tongliao, Inner Mongolia, China.
⁷ Inner Mongolia Collaborative Innovation Center for Castor Industry, Tongliao, Inner Mongolia, China.

Abstract

The pollution of soil with heavy metals is an increasingly serious worldwide problem, and cadmium (Cd) has attracted attention because of its high toxicity to almost all plants. Since castor tolerates the accumulation of heavy metals, it has the potential for heavy metal soil remediation. We studied the mechanism of the tolerance of castor to Cd stress treatments at three doses: 300 mg/L, 700 mg/L, and 1,000 mg/L. This research provides new ideas for revealing the defense and detoxification mechanisms of Cd-stressed castor. By combining the results of physiology, differential proteomics and comparative metabolomics, we conducted a comprehensive analysis of the networks that regulate the response of castor to Cd stress. The physiological results mainly emphasize the super-sensitive responses of castor plant roots to Cd stress and the effects of Cd stress on plants' antioxidant system, ATP synthesis and ion homeostasis. We confirmed these results at the protein and metabolite levels. In addition, proteomics and metabolomics indicated that under Cd stress, the expressions of proteins involved in defense and detoxification, energy metabolism and other metabolites such as organic acids and flavonoids were significantly up-regulated. At the same time, proteomics and metabolomics also show that castor plants mainly block the root system's absorption of Cd2+ by enhancing the strength of the cell wall, and inducing programmed cell death in response to the three different doses of Cd stress. In addition, the plasma membrane ATPase encoding gene (RcHA4), which was significantly upregulated in our differential proteomics and RT-qPCR studies, was transgenically overexpressed in wild type Arabidopsis thaliana for functional verification. The results indicated that this gene plays an important role in improving plant Cd tolerance.

Copyright: © 2023 Huibo et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Antioxidants
Arabidopsis* / genetics
Cadmium* / toxicity
Castor Oil
Metabolomics
Metals
Proteomics

Substances

Cadmium
Metals
Antioxidants
Castor Oil

Grants and funding

The National Natural Science Foundation of China (31860071); New Agricultural Science Research and Reform Project of Ministry of Education (2020114); General project of Inner Mongolia Natural Science Foundation (2021MS03008); Inner Mongolia Grassland Talents Innovation Team -- Castor bean Molecular Breeding Research Innovation Team Rolling Support Program (2022); 2021 Higher Education Teaching Reform Research Project of the State Ethnic Affairs Commission (21082); Project of Basic Scientific Research Funds of Universities directly under the Autonomous Region in 2022 (237); Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Castor Industry Collaborative Innovation Center Open Fund Project (MDK2021011, MDK2022014). Inner Mongolia University for Nationalities 2023 Basic Research Funds of Colleges and Universities directly under the Autonomous Region (225, 227, 244) The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.