Abstract
Main conclusionIn maize, leaf proteome responses evoked by soil drought applied separately differ from those evoked by mite feeding or both types of stresses occurring simultaneously.This study focuses on the involvement of proteomic changes in defence responses of a conventional maize cultivar (Bosman) to the two-spotted spider mite infestation, soil drought and both stresses coexisting for 6 days. Under watering cessation or mite feeding applied separately, the protein carbonylation was not directly linked to the antioxidant enzymes’ activities. Protein carbonylation increased at higher and lower SOD, APX, GR, POX, PPO activities following soil drought and mite feeding, respectively. Combination of these stresses resulted in protein carbonylation decrease despite the increased activity of all antioxidant enzymes (except the CAT). However, maize protein network modification remains unknown upon biotic/abiotic stresses overlapping. Here, using multivariate chemometric methods, 94 leaf protein spots (out of 358 considered; 2-DE) were identified (LC–MS/MS) as differentiating the studied treatments. Only 43 of them had individual discrimination power. The soil drought increased abundance of leaf proteins related mainly to photosynthesis, carbohydrate metabolism, defence (molecular chaperons) and protection. On the contrary, mite feeding decreased the abundance of photosynthesis related proteins and enhanced the abundance of proteins protecting the mite-infested leaf against photoinhibition. The drought and mites occurring simultaneously increased abundance of proteins that may improve the efficiency of carbon fixation, as well as carbohydrate and amino acid metabolism. Furthermore, increased abundance of the Rubisco large subunit-binding protein (subunit β), fructose-bisphosphate aldolase and mitochondrial precursor of Mn-SOD and decreased abundance of the glycolysis-related enzymes in the mite-free leaf (in the vicinity of mite-infested leaf) illustrate the involvement of these proteins in systemic maize response to mite feeding.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s00425-016-2559-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Highlights
Under field conditions, crop plants are exposed to many unavoidable environmental fluctuations
This study focuses on the involvement of proteomic changes in defence responses of a conventional maize cultivar (Bosman) to the two-spotted spider mite infestation, soil drought and both stresses coexisting for 6 days
relative water content (RWC) in maize leaf 8 subjected to mite infestation for 6 days decreased by less than 5 %, while at the same time, the soil drought occurring alone and simultaneously with the mite infestation, caused a reduction of the leaf RWC by 46 and 48 %, respectively
Summary
Crop plants are exposed to many unavoidable environmental fluctuations (e.g., soil water shortage, flooding, extreme temperatures, salinity, pathogen infection, arthropod herbivore attack). Most of the stress factors increase formation/accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) that change cellular redox metabolism (Baxter et al 2014). To control ROS generation, plants engage an antioxidant defence system consisting of nonenzymatic antioxidants and ROS scavenging enzymes. The capabilities of ROS-scavengers are essential for the effectiveness of mechanisms protecting plants against ROS overabundance due to biotic/abiotic environmental factors (Foyer and Noctor 2011). ROS act as second messengers in hormone signalling, coordinately regulating plant stress tolerance, while they cause oxidative damage when the level of ROS is overabundant (Foyer and Noctor 2011; Xia et al 2015)
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