Abstract

The current study was performed to analyze the dynamics of proteome in resistant cultivar of pearl millet seedlings during early hours of downy mildew infection. This was achieved using two-dimensional gel electrophoresis (2DE)-nano LCMS/MS based approach. Total protein extract from two-day-old pearl millet seedlings harvested 6 h post inoculation with pathogen, was fractionated by 2DE on 5-8 pI range IPG strips. Among the 210 protein spots detected by the PD-Quest software, 21 proteins were found to be up-regulated and 14 proteins down-regulated. Differential regulation of these proteins during downy mildew infection was found to be significant at p ≤ 0.05. Majority of these proteins belonged to the following functional categories: energy and metabolism (32%) category as well as stress and defense (32%). Unlike the previous proteomic study in pearl millet, the present study showed differential accumulation of early expressing defense-related genes such as those involved in reactive oxygen species mediated pathways, pathogenesis-related proteins and other interconnecting pathways responsible for coordinating the resistance mechanism of the plant. The current findings shed light on the vital differentially regulated proteins of pearl millet during early phase of pathogen infection that can be targeted as future disease management strategy.

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