Root Protein Interactomics of Salt Stress-Induced Proteins of Wheat Genotypes KH-65 (Salt-Tolerant) and PBW-373 (Salt-Susceptible)

Wheat crop is moderately tolerant to salt stress and is considered as an excellent system to study salt stress tolerance despite its genetic complexity. In the present study, the top ten biological processes in a root proteome were mapped for Protein-Protein Interaction (PPI) networks and analyzed to examine the effect of salt stress on wheat cultivars KH-65 and PBW-373. NaCl salinity treatment 0 and 300 mM NaCl was performed on a three-leaf stage plant. Roots proteins were analyzed by liquid chromatography-mass spectroscopy. Proteins were grouped according to GENE ontology terms for biological processes and arranged in descending order. Interactome analysis was done through the STRING database. Interacting root proteins of tolerant line KH-65 show a comparatively higher number of nodes, edges, and interacting proteins than the sensitive line, PBW-373. The number of proteins whose expression was positively induced upon salinity stress was significantly higher in the roots of salinity-tolerant KH-65 than that of the PBW-373 roots. Moreover, the fold induction too was also high in the tolerant line. Similarly, the number of participant proteins in an interaction network of the KH-65 roots was higher than that of the PBW-373 cultivar. This analysis provides valuable information in elucidating the molecular mechanism associated with salt stress response in wheat seedlings’ roots. The observation is correlated with the efficient salt tolerance capacity of KH-65. The higher expressing proteins in interaction networks may be seen under the increased salt tolerance capabilities of salt-tolerant KH-65 line.