Effects of manganese toxicity on the protein profile of tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) roots as revealed by two complementary proteomic approaches, two-dimensional electrophoresis and shotgun analysis.

The aim of this work was to assess the effects of manganese (Mn) toxicity on the proteome of tomato roots using two proteomic approaches, shotgun and two-dimensional electrophoresis. The shotgun approach yielded 367 reliable proteins, whereas the 2-DE approach detected 340 consistent spots. The 2-DE method found 54 proteins changing in relative abundance in the excess Mn treatment, whereas the shotgun detected changes in 118 proteins. Only 7% of the differential proteins were found by both methods, illustrating their complementary nature. Metabolic pathways most affected were protein metabolism, oxido-reductases and signaling. Results support that Mn toxicity alters the protein turnover and impairs energy production in roots, leading to changes in glycolysis, pyruvate metabolism, TCA and oxidative phosphorylation. Excess Mn also induced changes in peroxidases and hydrolases participating in cell wall lignification and suberization and activated plant defense mechanisms, with changes occurring via pathogenesis-related proteins as well as peroxidases. Finally, Mn toxicity elicited regulatory mechanisms and affected the abundance of root nutrient reservoir proteins. The overall analysis of the differential root proteome upon Mn toxicity suggests a general slowdown of metabolic activities, especially energy production, cell wall integrity and protein turnover, which occurs in parallel with increases in stress related proteins.