Proteomic Analysis of Seedling Roots of Two Maize Inbred Lines That Differ Significantly in the Salt Stress Response

Salinity is a major abiotic stress that limits plant productivity and quality throughout the world. Roots are the sites of salt uptake. To better understand salt stress responses in maize, we performed a comparative proteomic analysis of seedling roots from the salt-tolerant genotype F63 and the salt-sensitive genotype F35 under 160 mM NaCl treatment for 2 days. Under salinity conditions, the shoot fresh weight and relative water content were significantly higher in F63 than in F35, while the osmotic potential was significantly lower and the reduction of the K+/Na+ ratio was significantly less pronounced in F63 than in F35. Using an iTRAQ approach, twenty-eight proteins showed more than 2.0- fold changes in abundance and were regarded as salt-responsive proteins. Among them, twenty-two were specifically regulated in F63 but remained constant in F35. These proteins were mainly involved in signal processing, water conservation, protein synthesis and biotic cross-tolerance, and could be the major contributors to the tolerant genotype of F63. Functional analysis of a salt-responsive protein was performed in yeast as a case study to confirm the salt-related functions of detected proteins. Taken together, the results of this study may be helpful for further elucidating salt tolerance mechanisms in maize.