A comprehensive atlas of endogenous peptides in maize.

In this study, we present a comprehensive peptidomic atlas of 13 maize tissues, covering both vegetative and reproductive phases. Using a three-frame translation of canonical coding sequences, we identified 6100 nonredundant endogenous peptides, significantly expanding the known plant peptide repertoire. By integrating peptidomic coexpression profiles with previously reported proteomic profiles, we found that the peptide abundance did not consistently correlate with the abundance of their source proteins, suggesting the presence of complex regulatory mechanisms. This integrated peptidomic and proteomic map can serve as a valuable resource for exploring the functional roles of endogenous peptides in maize development and facilitates the investigation of the functional relationship among genes, peptides, and proteins across various biological contexts.