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Title: Do cupins have a function beyond being seed storage proteins? An updated working model for the growth and reproductive success of flax (Linum usitatissimum) in a radio-contaminated environment

Author
item GABRISOVA, DASA - Slovak Academy Of Sciences
item KLUBICOVA, KATARINA - Slovak Academy Of Sciences
item DANCHENKO, MAKSYM - National Academy Of Sciences Of Ukraine
item BEREZHNA, VALENTYNA - National Academy Of Sciences Of Ukraine
item SKULTETY, LUDOVIT - Slovak Academy Of Sciences
item Miernyk, Jan
item RASHYDOV, NAMIK - National Academy Of Sciences Of Ukraine
item HAJDUCH, MARTIN - Slovak Academy Of Sciences

Submitted to: Frontiers in Plant Science
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 12/17/2015
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary: Plants were grown in either radio-contaminated or control plots in proximity to the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. Chemical analysis of developing seeds was conducted for multiple generations in order to better understand the requirements for successful growth and reproduction. A positive correlation was observed between fragmentation of members of one class of seed proteins in the second and subsequent years of growth in contaminated plots. The information will be most useful to other scientists, including breeders and those using a biotech-approach to develop plants resistant to abiotic stress.

Technical Abstract: Plants continue to flourish around the site of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant disaster. The ability of plants to transcend the radio-contaminated environment was not anticipated and is not well understood. The aim of this study was to evaluate the proteome of flax (Linum usitatissimum L.) during seed filling by plants grown for a third generation near Chernobyl. For this purpose, seeds were harvested at 2, 4, and 6 weeks after flowering and at maturity, from plants grown in both non-radioactive and radio-contaminated experimental fields. Total proteins were extracted and the two-dimensional gel electrophoresis (2-DE) patterns analyzed. This approach established paired abundance profiles for 130 2-DE spots, e.g., profiles for the same spot across seed filling in non-radioactive and radio-contaminated experimental fields. Based on statistical analysis, 39 of the paired abundance profiles were discordant. Results from tandem mass spectrometry show that 48% of the 2-DE spots are discordant because they contain fragments of the cupin superfamily-proteins. Most of the fragments were derived from the C-terminal half of native cupins. Revisiting previously published data, it was found that cupin-fragments were also involved with discordance in abundance profiles of second generation flax seeds. Based on these observations we speculate that cupin fragmentation is complicit to the successful growth and reproduction of flax in a radio-contaminated environment.