A proteomic study showing differential regulation of stress, redox regulation and peroxidase proteins by iron supply and the transcription factor FER

Plants need to mobilize iron in the soil, and the basic helix-loop-helix transcription factor FER is a central regulator of iron acquisition in tomato roots. FER activity is controlled by iron supply. To analyse to what extent FER influences Fe-regulated protein expression, we investigated the root proteome of wild-type tomato, the fer mutant and a transgenic FER overexpression line under low-iron conditions versus sufficient and generous iron supply. The root proteomes were analysed by two-dimensional gel electrophoresis with three technical and three biological replicates. Statistical analysis identified 39 protein spots that were differentially regulated in selected pairwise comparisons of experimental conditions. Of these, 24 were correlated with expression clusters revealed by principal component analysis. The 39 protein spots were analysed by MALDI-TOF and nanoLC-MS/MS to deduce their possible functions. We investigated the functional representation in the identified expression clusters, and found that loss of FER function in iron-cultured plants mimicked an iron-deficiency status. The largest identified protein expression cluster was upregulated by iron deficiency and in the fer mutant. Two iron-regulated proteins required FER activity for induction by iron deficiency. Few proteins were suppressed by iron deficiency. The differentially expressed proteins belonged predominantly to the functional categories 'stress', 'redox regulation' and 'miscellaneous peroxidases'. Hence, we were able to identify distinct expression clusters of proteins with distinct functions.