Skip to main content
ARS Home » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #203652
Title: Protein Accumulation Changes Associated with Germination of the Uromyces appendiculatus Uredospore

Author
item Cooper, Bret
item NEELAN, ANIL - UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND
item Campbell, Kimberly
item Lee, Joohyun
item Liu, Ge - George
item Garrett, Wesley
item Scheffler, Brian
item Tucker, Mark

Submitted to: Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 3/2/2007
Publication Date: 7/1/2007
Citation: Cooper, B., Neelan, A., Campbell, K., Lee, J., Liu, G., Garrett, W.M., Scheffler, B.E., Tucker, M.L. 2007. Protein Accumulation Changes Associated with Germination of the Uromyces appendiculatus Uredospore. Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions. 20(7):857-866.

Interpretive Summary: Little is known about the proteins that make up the spores of fungi that cause rust diseases on beans. Knowledge of these proteins may lead to the discovery of chemicals that could inhibit germination of spores and the infection of plants. Mass spectrometry was used to identify proteins and measure the amounts of proteins between resting and germinating spores. There was an increase in the amount of proteins responsible for energy production during germling growth. There was also an increase in the amount of proteins needed for chromosome duplication, which points to changes in the nucleus that favor cell division and growth. Novel proteins for growth were also discovered and these proteins may be unique targets for chemical inhibition. The results suggest that proteins favoring growth are specifically produced by the germling. These abilities likely help improve a germling’s ability to quickly infect plants. These data are most likely to influence scientists at universities, government agencies and companies who are designing new fungicides to fight rust diseases.

Technical Abstract: Uromyces appendiculatus is transmitted when asexual uredospores are released from an infected dry bean leaf and spread by wind to other beans where spores germinate and cause rust disease. We have used Multidimensional Protein Identification Technology (MudPIT) to survey proteins in germinating spores and have compared this data to a prior dataset describing proteins in an inactive spore. Amounts were measured by counting the numbers of tandem mass spectra associated with each detected protein. There was little change after germination in amounts of accumulated proteins involved in glycolysis, acetyl Co-A metabolism, citric acid cycle, ATP coupled proton transport or gluconeogenesis. However, germlings contained a higher amount of proteins involved in electron transport and mitochondrial ADP:ATP translocation which is indicative of increased energy production. There was a slight increase in the total amount of translation initiation factors, supporting a prior model that suggests that germlings do not need to synthesize machinery for protein translation. There were more histones and proteins involved in nuclear protein translocation, pointing to the reorganization of the nuclei that occurs after germination. These changes are indicative of metabolic transition from dormancy to germination and are supported by cytological and developmental models of germling growth.