Quantitative phosphoproteomics of sweet orange (Citrus sinensis) infected by Candidatus Liberibacter
Year: 2021
Type: article
Abstract: Huanglongbing (HLB or Citrus Greening Disease) is a destructive citrus disease that has impacted the U.S. citrus
industry as well as global citrus industry for many years. There is yet to be a practical cure for HLB. Currently, there
are only temporary and costly solutions of applying insecticides to target the psyllid vector and burning down the
infected trees. Here we investigated the protein and phosphoprotein differences between control (healthy) and
diseased citrus leaves to identify potential biomarkers essential towards fighting HLB within the trees themselves.
Proteins were extracted from control and diseased leaves, followed by trypsin digestion, phosphopeptide enrichment
and label-free quantitative proteomics. In total, we identified 1539 proteins and 278 phosphoproteins, among which
63 proteins and 23 phosphoproteins exhibited significant changes between control and diseased samples. Proteins
in response to stimulus were increased at both total protein level and phosphorylation level. Interestingly, proteins
related to membranes and complexes were decreased, but increased at phosphorylation level. Several differential
phosphoproteins (e.g., a nuclear pore complex protein and a glutathione-S-transferase) could play important roles in
battling the devastating disease HLB, one that we can hopefully conquer in the near future.
Authors: Daniel Chen, Qijie Guan, Bryan Cao, Sixue Chen
Language: English
Subfield: Plant Science
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W3147966523