Protein Profile Changes of Two Chinese Fir Genotypes under Short-term Water Deficit

Chinese fir (Cunninghamia lanceolata) is an important commercial timber species in China.In the recent years, seasonal droughts occurred frequently in the fir growing areas and made a great impact on its production.In this study, PEG-6000 was used to simulate water deficit, while the drought-resistant FS43 and drought sensitive FS38 fir strains were selected as experimental materials.A two-dimensional electrophoresis technology was used for proteome analysis of leave protein comparisons between the two fir strains under water deficit.A total number of 24 differentially expressed protein spots were detected, of which five were identified by the tandem mass spectrometry and divided into four categories: (a) Functional enzymes involved in photosynthesis: the light-harvesting chlorophyll a/b-binding proteins, ribulose-1, 5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase; (b) Functional enzymes involved in osmotolerance: myo-inositol 1-phosphate synthase; (c) Functional enzymes involved in carbohydrate metabolism: granule-bound starch synthase I; (d) A conifer specific antioxidant stress-related functional enzyme.Under water deficit, these enzymes with obvious differences in protein expression levels might be involved in the regulation of fir responses to seasonal drought stress.