Proteomic studies of arbuscular mycorrhizal associations

Abstract

Arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi are soil-borne microorganisms forming mutualistic associations with the vast majority of land plants, including most agricultural relevant crops. In this association the plant provides the fungus with plant photosynthates allowing it to complete its life cycle, while the fungus provides the plant with mineral nutrients, mainly phosphorus and can also help the plant to tolerate biotic and abiotic stresses. In regard to these benefits there is growing interest on the use of AM fungi to improve productivity and sustainability in agricultural systems. AM fungi and their interactions with plants have been extensively studied using proteomic techniques, but some difficulties have been faced. 1) Little is known about the AM fungal typical protein repertoire because it is currently impossible to grow AM fungi in pure axenic cultures; 2) Plant tissues often contain high amounts of interfering substances that make protein extraction for the study of AM interactions a difficult procedure; 3) Most nutrient exchanges between AM fungi and their host plants involve participation of membrane proteins, still poorly resolved in most separation techniques. Finally, 4) the formation of the arbuscule is an asynchronous process, making it difficult to distinguish which proteins are essential in the early or late stages of AM associations. In this review we present a historical summary of how these difficulties have been overcome by technological advances in proteomics and we discuss current and future trends in the study of the proteins involved in AM interactions.

Impact of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) on gene expression of some cell wall and membrane elements of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) under water deficit using transcriptome analysis

“…The expression data about chitin binding and chitinase activity genes, revealed increasing pattern in presence of AMF, especially under water deficit condition. This result is consistent with Behringer et al (2015) observation in Picea abies, and other reports demonstrating the role of chitinase enzymes in increasing plant tolerance (Couto et al 2013;Dana et al 2006;Hermosa et al 2012;Lucas et al 2014).…”

Proteomics as a tool to decipher plant responses in arbuscular mycorrhizal interactions: a meta‐analysis

“…Although recent genetics and molecular studies have allowed the identification of many players regulating the complex plant‐ fungal interactions, little information is so far available on the proteomic factors involved in AM symbiosis [29]. The symbiotic association between plants and AM fungi significantly interferes with the plant physiology, especially in roots, leading to deep protein expression changes [19].…”

Seed Metabolism and Pathogen Resistance Enhancement in Pisum sativum During Colonization of Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi: An Integrative Metabolomics-Proteomics Approach

“…Thus far, major studies of mycorrhizal impacts on plants have been focused on some phenotypical components and/or improvement of nutritional properties in plants under optimal environmental growth conditions (Bethlenfalvay et al, 1994;Abdel-Fattah, 1997;Bethlenfalvay et al, 1997;Al-Karaki and Clark, 1999;Jin et al, 2013;Horii and Ishii, 2014;Kavitha and Nelson, 2014;Young et al, 2015;Abdel-Fattah et al, 2016). Even though there are increasing numbers of studies using omics technologies to investigate mycorrhizal symbiosis (Fontana et al, 2009;Pedone-Bonfim et al, 2013;Rebollo Couto et al, 2013;Laparre et al, 2014;Rivero et al, 2015;Saia et al, 2015;Bona et al, 2016;Larsen et al, 2016;Adolfsson et al, 2017;Li et al, 2017;Hill et al, 2018), the integration of several omics levels including metabolomics and proteomics with phenomics analyses is still a research gap. Also, most of this type of studies have concentrated on vegetative parts including shoot (Scheublin and van der Heijden, 2006), root (Schliemann et al, 2008;Song et al, 2015), leaf (Pedone-Bonfim et al, 2013;Schweiger et al, 2014;Desalegn et al, 2016;Adolfsson et al, 2017;Turetschek et al, 2017), and tuber (Lu et al, 2015).…”