Legume proteomics: Progress, prospects, and challenges

Abstract

Legumes are the major sources of food and fodder with strong commercial relevance, and are essential components of agricultural ecosystems owing to their ability to carry out endosymbiotic nitrogen fixation. In recent years, legumes have become one of the major choices of plant research. The legume proteomics is currently represented by more than 100 reference maps and an equal number of stress-responsive proteomes. Among the 48 legumes in the protein databases, most proteomic studies have been accomplished in two model legumes, soybean, and barrel medic. This review highlights recent contributions in the field of legume proteomics to comprehend the defence and regulatory mechanisms during development and adaptation to climatic changes. Here, we attempted to provide a concise overview of the progress in legume proteomics and discuss future developments in three broad perspectives: (i) proteome of organs/tissues; (ii) subcellular compartments; and (iii) spatiotemporal changes in response to stress. Such data mining may aid in discovering potential biomarkers for plant growth, in general, apart from essential components involved in stress tolerance. The prospect of integrating proteome data with genome information from legumes will provide exciting opportunities for plant biologists to achieve long-term goals of crop improvement and sustainable agriculture.

PpTFDB: A pigeonpea transcription factor database for exploring functional genomics in legumes

“…Once the whole genome sequence data is generated and made available, the present database will be further enriched with the updated information. The sequenced plant genomes data available in public domain enables the researchers to carryout high-throughput research in the area of comparative genomics and transcriptomic data analysis [19], gene expression analysis [20], functional genomics [21] proteomics [22] and database development [23]. Such databases are very helpful for the biologists for functional validations of the genes identified in silico .…”

Mining seed proteome: from protein dynamics to modification profiles

“…Because of the intrinsic limitations of the top-down strategy -relatively small molecular weight and a strong requirement for high sample purity -it is only rarely applied in seed proteomics (Hummel, Wigger, and Brockmeyer, 2015). In contrast, bottom-up methods find application in all aspects of seed biology (Rathi et al, 2016). Due to the high complexity of living organisms in general and the plant proteome in particular, massspectrometric methods employed in its characterization need to be complemented by adequate separation techniques.…”

“…Annotation of electrophoretic zones typically relies on MS analysis. For this, individual spots are excised, destained, and proteins, immobilized in gel, and can be digested with site-specific proteases (most often with trypsin) (Rathi et al, 2016). The resulting digests are extracted from gel sections and analyzed by matrix-assisted laser desorption-ionization -time of flight (MALDI-TOF) -or electrospray ionization -(ESI)-MS.…”

Proteomic analysis of chickpea roots reveal differential expression of abscisic acid responsive proteins

“…The study of root tissue by comparative proteomics is therefore fundamental to understand the plant physiology at molecular level. Literature perusal on root protein characterization in few crops revealed an important marker of stress in legumes (Rathi, Gayen, Gayali, Chakraborty, & Chakraborty, ). Analysing root tissue from two closely related species possessing different agronomic characteristics thus warranted.…”