engleski

Proteomics studies of heavy metal toxicity in plants

Plants face a variety of abiotic and biotic stresses, which are major causes in limiting crop production. Among abiotic stressors, heavy metal contamination represents a global environmental problem endangering humans, animals, and plants. It has been documented that exposure to heavy metals can induce changes in the expression of plant proteins. Proteins are macromolecules directly responsible for most biological processes in a living cell, while protein function is directly influenced by posttranslational modifications, which cannot be followed by genome studies. Therefore, it is necessary to conduct proteomic studies which elucidate protein presence and role under certain environmental conditions. In the present review, an attempt is made to present the state of the art of the proteomic techniques developed in the last decade for elucidating the plant heavy metal stress response. Significant contributions made so far for better understanding of the complex mechanisms of plant metal stress acclimation are also discussed.

heavy metal stress; mass spectrometry; plant proteome; protein biomarkers; two dimensional electrophoresis

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