Drought stress triggers proteomic changes involving lignin, flavonoids and fatty acids in tea plants

Abstract

Drought stress triggers a series of physiological and biochemical changes in tea plants. It is well known that flavonoids, lignin and long-chain fatty acids play important roles in drought resistance. However, changes in proteins related to these three metabolic pathways in tea plants under drought stress have not been reported. We analysed the proteomic profiles of tea plants by tandem mass tag and liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. A total of 4789 proteins were identified, of which 11 and 100 showed up- and downregulation, respectively. The proteins related to the biosynthesis of lignin, flavonoids and long-chain fatty acids, including phenylalanine ammonia lyase, cinnamoyl-CoA reductase, peroxidase, chalcone synthase, flavanone 3-hydroxylase, flavonol synthase, acetyl-CoA carboxylase 1,3-ketoacyl-CoA synthase 6 and 3-ketoacyl-CoA reductase 1, were downregulated. However, the contents of soluble proteins, malondialdehyde, total phenols, lignin and flavonoids in the tea plants increased. These results showed that tea plants might improve drought resistance by inhibiting the accumulation of synthases related to lignin, flavonoids and long-chain fatty acids. The proteomic spectrum of tea plants provides a scientific basis for studying the pathways related to lignin, flavonoid and long-chain fatty acid metabolism in response to drought stress.

Differential Response of Two Tomato Genotypes, Wild Type cv. Ailsa Craig and Its ABA-Deficient Mutant flacca to Short-Termed Drought Cycles

“…Increased lignin deposition and up-regulation of enzymes related to its biosynthesis and accumulation under drought conditions were also reported in numerous articles [113][114][115][116]. In this way, lignin prevents water loss from the leaf, thus contributing to drought tolerance [116].…”

Transcriptomics of developing wild sunflower seeds from the extreme ends of a latitudinal gradient differing in seed oil composition

“…Two differentially expressed KCS genes are also found within oil QTL; one within the oleic acid content QTL on chromosome 3 and the other on the palmitic acid content QTL on chromosome 8. As noted earlier, KCS genes contribute to the production and elongation of very-long chain fatty acids and are involved in abiotic stress tolerance (Gu et al, 2020b; Millar and Kunst, 1997). A differentially expressed ketoacyl-ACP synthase II ( KASII ) colocalizes with a palmitic, stearic, oleic, and linoleic acid content QTL on chromosome 9.…”

“…KCS genes are involved in the elongation step during the synthesis of very-long-chain fatty acids (Gu et al, 2020a; Millar and Kunst, 1997). Drought stress is known to trigger production of these very-long-chain fatty acids, and while they don’t affect the overall degree of seed oil saturation, expression of these genes can alter the levels of individual fatty acids within seed oils (Gu et al, 2020a; Guo et al, 2020; Hashim et al, 1993). Members of the ALA-ALIS flippase complex are also differentially expressed and are involved in the translocation of phospholipids between membrane bilayers (Nintemann et al, 2019).…”

Dynamic Transcriptomic and Metabolomic Analyses of Madhuca pasquieri (Dubard) H. J. Lam During the Post-germination Stages

“…Flavonoids are secondary metabolites widely distributed in plants with diverse physiological functions (Taylor and Grotewold, 2005 ; D'Amelia et al, 2018 ), which play important roles such as ultraviolet photo-damage protection (Biever and Gardner, 2016 ), defense against pathogens and pests (Zhao et al, 2020 ), stress response (Gu et al, 2020 ), pollen and pollen tube formation (Zhang et al, 2020b ), and auxin transport regulation (Ramos et al, 2016 ). Flavonols, a subgroup of flavonoids, regulate auxin transport and auxin-dependent physiological processes, and act as an auxin transport inhibitor (Pollastri and Tattini, 2011 ; Brunetti et al, 2018 ).…”