Journal Article

Physiological and proteome studies of maize (Zea mays L.) in response to leaf removal under high plant density

Wei, Shanshan, Wang, Xiangyu, Dong, Shuting, Jiang, Dong

2018

Overview

Background Under high plant density, intensifying competition among individual plants led to overconsumption of energy and nutrients and resulted in an almost dark condition in the lower strata of the canopy, which suppressed the photosynthetic potential of the shaded leaves. Leaf removal could help to ameliorate this problem and increase crop yields. To reveal the mechanism of leaf removal in maize, tandem mass tags label-based quantitative analysis coupled with liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry were used to capture the differential protein expression profiles of maize subjected to the removal of the two uppermost leaves (S 2 ), the four uppermost leaves (S 4 ), and with no leaf removal as control (S 0 ). Results Excising leaves strengthened the light transmission rate of the canopy and increased the content of malondialdehyde, whereas decreased the activities of superoxide dismutase and peroxidase. Two leaves removal increased the photosynthetic capacity of ear leaves and the grain yield significantly, whereas S 4 decreased the yield markedly. Besides, 239 up-accumulated proteins and 99 down-accumulated proteins were identified between S 2 and S 0 , which were strongly enriched into 30 and 23 functional groups; 71 increased proteins and 42 decreased proteins were identified between S 4 and S 0 , which were strongly enriched into 22 and 23 functional groups, for increased and decreased proteins, respectively. Conclusions Different defoliation levels had contrastive effects on maize. The canopy light transmission rate was strengthened and proteins related to photosynthetic electron-transfer reaction were up-regulated significantly for treatment S 2 , which improved the leaf photosynthetic capacity, and obtained a higher grain yield consequently. In contrast, S 4 decreased the grain yield and increased the expressions of proteins and genes associated with fatty acid metabolism. Besides, both S 2 and S 4 exaggerated the defensive response of maize in physiological and proteomic level. Although further studies are required, the results in our study provide new insights to the further improvement in maize grain yield by leaf removal.

• Publisher: BioMed Central,BioMed Central Ltd,Springer Nature B.V,BMC
• Subject: Abiotic stress / Agricultural production / Agriculture / Biochemistry and physiology / Biomedical and Life Sciences / Canopies / canopy / Chlorophyll / Chlorophyll - metabolism / Chromatography / Chromatography, Liquid / Corn / Crop Production - methods / Crop yield / Defensive behavior / Defoliation / electron transfer / energy / fatty acid metabolism / Functional groups / Gene Expression Regulation, Plant - physiology / genes / Genetic aspects / Grain / grain yield / Leaf removal / Leaves / Life Sciences / Light / Light transmission / Light transmission rate / Liquid chromatography / Maize / Malondialdehyde / Malondialdehyde - metabolism / Mass spectrometry / Mass spectroscopy / Metabolism / moieties / Nutrients / Pathogenesis / Peroxidase / Peroxidase - metabolism / Photosynthesis / Physiological aspects / Physiology / Plant Leaves - metabolism / Plant Leaves - physiology / Plant Proteins - isolation & purification / Plant Proteins - metabolism / Plant Proteins - physiology / Plant Sciences / Plant spacing / Population Density / Protein expression / protein synthesis / Proteins / proteome / Proteome - metabolism / Proteome - physiology / Proteomes / proteomics / Quantitative analysis / Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction / Research Article / Scientific imaging / Superoxide dismutase / Superoxide Dismutase - metabolism / Tandem Mass Spectrometry / TMT label / Tree Biology / Zea mays / Zea mays - metabolism / Zea mays - physiology