Abstract
Introduction: Drought is the main abiotic stress responsible for crop loss worldwide. Maize (Zea mays L.) is a widely grown drought-sensitive crop used as a staple food by the growing population. Therefore, it is imperative to assess the molecular mechanisms behind drought response and tolerance in maize. Transcriptomic profiling of abiotic stress responsive pathways in various crops appeared to be an unreliable approach due to post-transcriptional modifications, while there is limited published data on molecular mechanisms of osmotic-stress response in maize. Hence our study aimed at profiling osmotic stress responsive proteins augmented by their associated morphological features in Z. mays. Materials and Methods: In this regard, morphological and proteomic investigations were carried out on 16-day maize seedlings exposed to 5% (w/v) and 10% (w/v) polyethylene glycol(PEG) to induce osmotic-stress. Proteomics approach (one-dimensional (1D) and two-dimensional (2D) gel electrophoresis) compared differential protein abundance between controls and the osmotic stressed maize plants. Results: Morphological parameters such as plant growth, height, shoot diameter, leaf area, and colour were highly affected with PEG treatment as compared to the untreated ones. Molecular evaluation by 1D gel electrophoresis revealed that the separated protein patterns were highly expressed in the experiments than the controls. Using 2D gel electrophoresis, a total of seven and eight protein spots were revealed in experimental plants under 5% (w/v) and 10% (w/v) PEG treatment respectively while the control plants only expressed one protein. Increased drought stress resulted in a greater number of proteins with differential abundance. Conclusion: This study has successfully profiled the total osmotic stress responsive proteins and revealed the efficiency of proteomic tools in the qualitative detection of differential proteins from maize.
Highlights
Drought is the main abiotic stress responsible for crop loss worldwide
Findings from this study established that polyethylene glycol (PEG) affects the morphological and proteomic profiles of growing maize
Eight differentially expressed proteins were visualized and profiled, indicating that the qualitative proteomic tools used in this study were able to separate and allow for the detection of stress responsive proteins in Zea mays
Summary
Drought is the main abiotic stress responsible for crop loss worldwide. Maize (Zea mays L.) is a widely grown drought-sensitive crop used as a staple food by the growing population. Plants are often exposed to various biotic and abiotic stress factors Abiotic stresses, such as drought, extreme heat, freezing, heavy metals, and high salinity, result in diminished plant growth and loss of crop productivity world-wide [1].The majority of these environmental conditions impose osmoticstress that has been demonstrated by reduced water potential and severe impact on plant development [2]. Drought is one of the major stress factors that affect agricultural crops more than any other stress and is becoming even more severe in many parts of the world [5] It does cause differences between the mean yield and potential yield, and the overall year to year yield.
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