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Physiological and proteomic analyses reveal the protective roles of exogenous hydrogen peroxide in alleviating drought stress in soybean plants

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Abstract

Drought stress is one of the major constraints for soybean growth and productivity worldwide. The study was aimed to investigate drought-induced physiological and proteomic changes in soybeans, as well as drought relief using exogenous hydrogen peroxide (H2O2). In drought-stressed plants, H2O2 spray on the leaf surface improved relative water content (RWC), net photosynthetic rate (Pn), and stomatal conductance (Gs). Furthermore, exogenous H2O2 reduced drought stress-induced endogenous MDA and H2O2 levels, as well as increased the key antioxidant enzymes (SOD,CAT, APX and POD) activity and proline content in H2O2-treated soybean plants. These findings showed that H2O2 treatment significantly reduced drought stress by increasing the antioxidative defense system and osmotic adjustment. Furthermore, using matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight (MALDI-TOF) mass spectrometry, a total of 27 differently expressed proteins was identified, wherein 23 were up-regulated and 4 were down-regulated under drought condition. These proteins were found to be involved in photosynthesis, energy and metabolism, plant defense and antioxidant, signaling and transport, and transcription regulation in response to H2O2 treatment in soybean under drought stress, according to in silico interactome analysis. These findings add to our understanding of H2O2-mediated drought stress alleviation, as well as the physiological and molecular responses of soybean to drought stress.

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Acknowledgements

The authors’ research was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) Grant (NRF-2011-616-F00013). MAR, Y-G K, SAS and IA were supported by a scholarship from BK21Plus Program, the Ministry of Education, Republic of Korea.

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Author notes

  1. Md Atikur Rahman

    Present address: Grassland and Forage Division, National Institute of Animal Science, Rural Development Administration, Cheonan, 31000, Republic of Korea

  2. Iftekhar Alam

    Present address: Plant Biotechnology Division, National Institute of Biotechnology, Ganakbari, Ashulia, Savar, Dhaka, 1349, Bangladesh

  3. Shamima Akhtar Sharmin

    Present address: Environmental Biotechnology Division, National Institute of Biotechnology, Ganakbari, Ashulia, Savar, Dhaka, 1349, Bangladesh

  4. Yong-Goo Kim

    Present address: Biological Resource Center, Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology (KRIBB), Jeongeup, 56212, Republic of Korea

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Applied Life Sciences (BK21), and ILAS, Gyeongsang National University, Jinju, 52828, Republic of Korea

    Md Atikur Rahman, Iftekhar Alam, Shamima Akhtar Sharmin, Yong-Goo Kim & Byung-Hyun Lee

  2. Molecular Plant Physiology Laboratory, Department of Botany, University of Rajshahi, Rajshahi, 6205, Bangladesh

    Ahmad Humayan Kabir

  3. Key Laboratory of Plant Resources, Institute of Botany, The Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100093, China

    Gongshe Liu

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Contributions

MAR, IA, GL and B-HL conceived and designed the project. IA, SAS and Y-GK provided methodological assistance. AHK carried out bioinformatics analysis. MAR wrote the initial draft of the manuscript, IA and B-HL revised it, and B-HL supervised the whole work.

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Correspondence to Byung-Hyun Lee.

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Rahman, M.A., Alam, I., Sharmin, S.A. et al. Physiological and proteomic analyses reveal the protective roles of exogenous hydrogen peroxide in alleviating drought stress in soybean plants. Plant Biotechnol Rep 15, 805–818 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11816-021-00719-9

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