The intrinsic and regulated proteomes of barley seeds in response to fungal infection

Edward D Kerr,Toan K Phung,Christopher H Caboche,Glen P Fox,Greg J Platz,Benjamin L Schulz

doi:10.1016/j.ab.2019.06.004

Edward D Kerr, Toan K Phung + Show 4 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ab.2019.06.004

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Abstract

Barley is an important cereal grain used for beer brewing, animal feed, and human food consumption. Fungal disease can impact barley production, as it causes substantial yield loss and lowers seed quality. We used sequential window acquisition of all theoretical ions mass spectrometry (SWATH-MS) to measure and quantify the relative abundance of proteins within seeds of different barley varieties under various fungal pathogen burdens (ProteomeXchange Datasets PXD011303 and PXD014093). Fungal burden in the leaves and stems of barley resulted in changes to the seed proteome. However, these changes were minimal and showed substantial variation among barley samples infected with different pathogens. The limited effect of intrinsic disease resistance on the seed proteome is consistent with the main mediators of disease resistance being present in the leaves and stems of the plant. The seeds of barley varieties accredited for use as malt had higher levels of proteins associated with starch synthesis and beer quality. The proteomic workflows developed and implemented here have potential application in quality control, breeding and processing of barley, and other agricultural products.

Highlights

Barley is a major cereal grain used as stockfeed for animals, as food for humans, and as the main agricultural product for brewing beer
We aimed to investigate how growth environment, pathogen burden, and barley variety affected malt quality by modifying the molecular composition of barley seeds
To study how these factors affected barley seed proteomes, we performed SWATH-MS proteomics on barley grain grown in a field trial in south east Queensland, Australia, in 2015

Summary

Introduction

Barley is a major cereal grain used as stockfeed for animals, as food for humans, and as the main agricultural product for brewing beer. As barley is the main ingredient in brewing, varieties of barley are bred and grown for use as malt in the brewing industry. Many qualities are targeted when breeding and growing malting barley, including high yields, disease resistance, diastase production (starch degrading enzymes), and low levels of b-glucan [2]. Different varieties of barley are grown in Australia for export or domestic markets. This is because the Australian brewing industry tends to use additional sucrose in fermentation, whereas brewers in export markets tend to use additional sources of starch such as rice which require higher levels of diastase enzymes

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