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ARS Home » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #253959
Title: Nuclear proteomic changes linked to soybean rust resistance

Author
item Cooper, Bret
item Campbell, Kimberly
item FENG, JIAN - Johns Hopkins University
item Garrett, Wesley
item Frederick, Reid

Submitted to: Molecular Biosystems
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 10/21/2010
Publication Date: 12/3/2010
Citation: Cooper, B., Campbell, K., Feng, J., Garrett, W.M., Frederick, R.D. 2010. Nuclear proteomic changes linked to soybean rust resistance. Molecular Biosystems. 7:773-783.

Interpretive Summary: Little is known about the proteins that make up leaves of soybean. Discovery of proteins that are important for disease resistance to fungal pathogens like soybean rust may help improve soybean cultivars through breeding or transgenic technology. Mass spectrometry was used to identify proteins by their mass and measure the amounts of proteins in soybean leaves infected with soybean rust. Comparison between plants that are naturally resistant and plants naturally susceptible revealed a set of proteins that contribute to the resistance response. A separate set of proteins was found to help the fungus survive in susceptible plants. These results have helped identify disease resistance proteins that could eventually be used to protect susceptible plants. These data are most likely to influence scientists at universities, government agencies and companies who are searching for new genes to fight rust diseases

Technical Abstract: Approximately 4,975 proteins from nuclear preparations of soybean leaves were detected using a high-throughput liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry method. Statistics of summed spectral counts revealed sets of proteins with differential accumulation changes between isogenic soybeans susceptible and resistant to the soybean rust fungus. These protein accumulation changes were compared to previously reported gene expression changes and very little overlap was found. Many of these proteins have predicted nuclear localization signals, have homology to transcription factors and other nuclear regulatory proteins, and are phosphorylated. These results suggest that numerous plant proteins are post-translationally affected in the nucleus after infection. It is possible that some of these proteomic changes influence defense responses that ultimately confer resistance to soybean rust. This is the first indication of large-scale proteomic change in the nucleus of any plant after infection. In addition, a new concept, termed proteogenetics, is introduced whereby proteomics information is used to complement DNA marker information to map a genetic trait.