Proteomics of bulked rachides combined with documented QTL uncovers genotype nonspecific players of the Fusarium head blight responses in wheat
Citation
Liu, J., Li, L., Foroud, N.A., Gong, X., Li, C., Li, T. (2019). Proteomics of bulked rachides combined with documented QTL uncovers genotype nonspecific players of the Fusarium head blight responses in wheat. Phytopathology, [online] 109(1), 111-119. http://dx.doi.org/10.1094/PHYTO-03-18-0086-R
Plain language summary
Proteomics is a tool to study the proteome of a cell. The proteome is the entire content of proteins within a cell or tissue at a given time, and it is constantly changing in response to developmental and environmental cues. By studying changes in the plant proteome induced by a stress, such as exposure to a plant pathogen, we can learn how the plant responds to a stress and gain insights into the mechanisms of resistance versus susceptibility. In this study, a "bulked proteomics" approach was employed to study the Fusarium head blight disease response in wheat. Ten resistant and 6 susceptible varieties were inoculated with the causative agent, Fusarium graminearum, and proteomics analysis was carried out on bulked samples to compare resistant versus susceptible response to this fungus.
Abstract
Fusarium head blight (FHB) is a destructive disease of wheat that reduces yield and grain quality. High-throughput proteomic techniques have been used to identify a wide range of candidate proteins involved in host resistance. The majority of the published works on the proteomics of the wheat response to Fusarium graminearum infection are case specific. In the current study, a high-throughput quantitative label-free strategy was employed on bulked rachides of F. graminearum-infected wheat collected from multiple genotypes. Differentially accumulated proteins among the following four pools were identified: mock-inoculated FHB-resistant accessions (RM), mock-inoculated FHB-susceptible accessions (SM), F. graminearum-inoculated FHB-resistant accessions (RFg), and F. graminearum-inoculated FHB-susceptible accessions (SFg). Four pairs of comparisons were made: RFg versus RM, SFg versus SM, RM versus SM, and RFg versus SFg. Proteins were projected onto the consensus intervals of previously reported quantitative trait loci in the FHB-resistant pool by blasting against the Chinese Spring reference sequences. In addition to proteins previously reported in the host response to Fusarium spp., new candidates have emerged in association with resistance or susceptibility, including a group 3 late embryogenesis abundant as a resistance-related protein and a purple acid phosphatase as a susceptibility protein. The protein atlas presented here provides new perspectives on the interaction between F. graminearum and wheat.