A comparative proteomic study of drought-tolerant and drought-sensitive soybean seedlings under drought stress

Abstract

Drought is a major factor limiting plant growth causing yield reduction in crops; hence the characterisation of drought tolerance and the development of drought-tolerant crop varieties have been a goal of many crop breeding programs. Using the proteomics approach, we compared the differential protein abundance of drought-tolerant and drought-sensitive soybean leaves subjected to mild or severe drought stress. Proteins were extracted and separated using two-dimensional electrophoresis. Those protein spots with significant and more than 2-fold difference in abundance, 174 in total, were further analysed and 102 proteins were positively identified. Around 38.5% of these proteins were related to energy metabolism and photosynthetic functions, followed by those associated with defence response (36.4%) and protein metabolism (25.2%). Severe drought resulted in a greater number of proteins with differential abundance. Genotypes responded differently to drought stress with the tolerant genotype showing a higher capacity for reactive oxygen species scavenging and maintaining energy supply than the sensitive genotype. The sensitive genotype had a greater number of proteins with significant differential abundance than the tolerant genotypes due to drought. The different patterns in protein abundance induced by drought stress may potentially be utilised to screen and select candidate soybean lines with improved drought tolerance.

Molecular Mechanisms of Tungsten Toxicity Differ for Glycine max Depending on Nitrogen Regime

“…Alpha-amylase/subtilisin inhibitor activity was reported to be induced by various heavy metals as well as other abiotic stressors (Frendo et al, 1992; Solanki and Dhankhar, 2011). In drought tolerant soybean Kunitz trypsin protease inhibitors and acid phosphatase showed a significant increase (37-fold and 114-fold increase respectively) during severe drought (Yu et al, 2016). Our data suggests that both proteins are also involved in tungsten stress response.…”

Proteomic analysis of drought stress response mechanism in soybean (Glycine max L.) leaves

“…Proteomics has been identified as the most directed approach to relate the function of genes to the associated products. Applications of proteomics in identifying drought stress-related proteins have been reported in several researches such as rice (Oryza sativa L.) (Salekdeh et al, 2002), Sunflower (Heliantus annus) (Ghaffari et al, 2017), common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) (Gebeyehu et al (2010), barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) (Rollins et al, 2013), soybean (Glycine max L.) (Yu et al, 2016). Soybean is one of the important plants that affect the environment (Luo et al, 2005).…”

Biochemical examination of non-transgenic and transgenic soybean plants under drought stress conditions

“…Several specific sets of genes that are unique to transgenic plants can be activated (Abdeen and Miki 2009), but different responses are observed depending on interactions with respective environment (Darmency 2013). Furthermore, drought stress tolerance involves several mechanisms, which include molecular, anatomic, and metabolic responses (Makbul et al 2011, Kidokoro et al 2015, Yu et al 2016, Gonçalves et al 2017. Our results indicate that antioxidant defense mechanisms were correlated with the differences between stress tolerance in non-transgenic and transgenic cultivars.…”