Schulze WX, Altenbuchinger M, He M, Kränzlein M, Zörb C.

Plant Physiol Biochem. 2021 Feb; 159:67-79. doi: 10.1016/j.plaphy.2020.12.009. 

Abstract

Drought has become a major stress for agricultural productivity in temperate regions, such as central Europe. Thus, information on how crop plants respond to drought is important to develop tolerant hybrids and to ensure yield stability. Posttranscriptional regulation through changed protein abundances is an important mechanism of short-term response to stress events that has not yet been widely exploited in breeding strategies. Here, we investigated the response to repeated drought exposure of a tolerant and a sensitive maize hybrid in order to understand general protein abundance changes induced by singular drought or repeated drought events. In general, drought affected protein abundance of multiple pathways in the plant. We identified starch metabolism, aquaporin abundance, PSII proteins and histones as strongly associated with typical drought-induced phenotypes such as increased membrane leakage, osmolality or effects on stomatal conductance and assimilation rate. In addition, we found a strong effect of drought on nutrient assimilation, especially the sulfur metabolism. In general, pre-experience of mild drought before exposure to a more severe drought resulted in visible adaptations resulting in dampened phenotypes as well as lower magnitude of protein abundance changes.

See: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33341081/  or

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0981942820306240?via%3Dihub

Fig. 5. Protein abundance comparison between genotype K and genotype L. Each dot represents a single protein abundance under control conditions (constant water supply) throughout the three harvests. Asterisks indicate proteins and protein clusters significantly different (p < 0.05, pairwise t-test) under control conditions in genotype L compared to genotype K.