Protein dynamics during seed germination under copper stress in Arabidopsis over-expressing Potentilla superoxide dismutase

Copper (Cu), though an essential micronutrient for plants, poses toxicity at higher concentrations possibly by inducing oxidative stress. With the background that enzyme superoxide dismutase (SOD) ameliorates oxidative stress, the present work focused on understanding physiological and proteomic response of Arabidopsis seeds constitutively over-expressing copper-zinc SOD of Potentilla atrosanguinea (PaSOD) during germination in response to varied concentrations of copper sulphate (Cu stress). Transgenics showed higher germination percentage and required less mean time to germination under Cu-stress. In response to Cu stress, 39 differentially expressed protein spots were detected by 2-D electrophoresis in proteins of germinating wild type (WT) and transgenic seeds, of which 14 spots appeared exclusively in transgenics. Among the rest 25 protein spots, 14 showed down-regulation, one showed up-regulation, and 10 spots disappeared. MALDI-TOF and subsequent peptide mass fingerprinting analysis revealed that the down-regulated proteins in transgenics were related to oxidative stress, detoxification, germination, intermediary metabolism and regulatory proteins. Up-regulated proteins in WT and down-regulated proteins in transgenic during Cu stress were the same. Changes in key proteins, vis-A -vis alleviation of oxidative stress in transgenic Arabidopsis over-expressing PaSOD possibly alleviated toxicity of Cu-induced stress during seed germination, resulting in higher germination rate and germination percentage.