Isolation, Identification And Analysis Of The Responding Proteins From Lathryus Sativus Leaves At Different Steps Of Drought Stress

Grass pea(Lathyrus sativus L.), a crop with superior drought tolerance and other several agronomically advantageous characteristics, has been recognized as an important legume grown in arid and semi-arid areas. Besides studies on toxicology and metabolism of toxins, as well as screening low-toxin varieties, its mechanisms underlying tolerance to drought have also got a special research attention recently.In this study, grass pea leaf proteins expressed at different stages of drought stress were isolated by two-dimensional electrophoresis (2-DE).2-DE images have been obtained with good reproducibility and high resolution. The proteins expressed differentially during drought stress were found using software Image Master 2D Platinum and identified by mass spectrometry (MS). The main results are summarized as follows:1 The leaf proteins expressed at different stages of drought stress were extracted using optimized method, and isolated by two-dimensional electrophoresis technology with good repeatability and high resolution.2 The 2-DE images of protein expression were analyzed by Image Master 2-DE Platinum Version 5.0 software, and 634±67 of average protein spots (numbers ranging from 550 to 750) in each gel image were detected, in which differentially expressed protein spots at different stages of drought stress were further identified by MS.3 According to the changes of protein expression profile,142 differential expressed proteins were identified by MS. The results indicated that differentially expressed proteins at different stages of drought stress mainly involved in a diverse range of cellular processes such as photosynthesis, respiration, glycolysis, nitrogen assimilation, metabolisms of both proteins and nucleic acids, antioxidative regulation, etc.Based on the results from this study, we conclude that grass pea may show the following strategies to cope with drought stress:the plants can be triggered rapid responses to drought, and have the capacity to recover quickly from stress state when re-supplied with water. Although there was no protein which is found responsible for drought resistance, a great number of proteins from a wide spectrum of life activies and biological resistence are involved in this complex process. The notable changes in expressions of antioxidant-related proteins suggest that further study on oxidation resistance of grass pea is very important to reveal the mechanism of strong drought resistance.