Abstract
Fruit is an assimilator of metabolites, nutrients, and signaling molecules, thus considered as potential target for pathogen attack. In response to patho-stress, such as fungal invasion, plants reorganize their proteome, and reconfigure their physiology in the infected organ. This remodeling is coordinated by a poorly understood signal transduction network, hormonal cascades, and metabolite reallocation. The aim of the study was to explore organ-based proteomic alterations in the susceptibility of heterotrophic fruit to necrotrophic fungal attack. We conducted time-series protein profiling of Sclerotinia rolfsii invaded tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) fruit. The differential display of proteome revealed 216 patho-stress responsive proteins (PSRPs) that change their abundance by more than 2.5-fold. Mass spectrometric analyses led to the identification of 56 PSRPs presumably involved in disease progression; regulating diverse functions viz. metabolism, signaling, redox homeostasis, transport, stress-response, protein folding, modification and degradation, development. Metabolome study indicated differential regulation of organic acid, amino acids, and carbohydrates paralleling with the proteomics analysis. Further, we interrogated the proteome data using network analysis that identified two significant functional protein hubs centered around malate dehydrogenase, T-complex protein 1 subunit gamma, and ATP synthase beta. This study reports, for the first-time, kinetically controlled patho-stress responsive protein network during post-harvest storage in a sink tissue, particularly fruit and constitute the basis toward understanding the onset and context of disease signaling and metabolic pathway alterations. The network representation may facilitate the prioritization of candidate proteins for quality improvement in storage organ.
Highlights
Cross-talk between pathogens and plants originates from a co-evolution of invasion and defense strategies (Chisholm et al, 2006)
One mm potato dextrose agar (PDA) plugs containing actively growing S. rolfsii mycelia were used as inoculum
To understand the necrotrophic mode of disease development associated with non-host response during storage, tomato fruits were infected with Sclerotina rolfsii in a time course experiment up to 120 hpi
Summary
Cross-talk between pathogens and plants originates from a co-evolution of invasion and defense strategies (Chisholm et al, 2006). Patho-Stress Responsive Proteins in Tomato respond to invading pathogens, and susceptibility can depend on developmental state (Cantu et al, 2009). Patho-stress is the major impediments in post-harvest storage, which deteriorates the fruit nutritional quality and sensorial attributes, and shelf-life. The second most consumed vegetable of high economic value represents a model for plant development, fleshy fruit physiology, ripening, and pathology (Arie et al, 2007; Giovannoni, 2007). It is an assimilator of various metabolites appears to be the superlative target for pathogen attack
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