Comparative proteomic analysis of proteins in response to simulated acid rain in Arabidopsis.

A proteomic study using 2-D gel electrophoresis and MALDI-TOF MS was performed to characterize the responses of Arabidopsis thaliana plants to simulated acid rain (SiAR) stress, which is a global environmental problem and has become a serious issue in China in recent years. The emphasis of the present study was to investigate the overall protein expression changes when exposed to SiAR. Out of over 1000 protein spots reproducibly resolved, 50 of them changed their abundance by at least 2-fold. Analysis of protein expression patterns revealed that a set of proteins associated with energy production, metabolism, cell rescue, cell defense and protein folding, etc., could play important roles in mediating plant response to SiAR. In addition to this, some proteins involved in stress responses and jasmonic acid pathway are also involved in plant response to SiAR. More interestingly, the expression of several ubiquitination-related proteins changed dramatically after 32-h SiAR treatment, suggesting that they may act as a molecular marker for the injury phenotype caused by SiAR. Based on our results, we proposed a schematic model to explain the mechanisms associated with the systematic response of Arabidopsis plants to SiAR.