Proteomic Analysis of the Function of a Novel Cold-Regulated Multispanning Transmembrane Protein COR413-PM1 in Arabidopsis

Abstract

The plasma membrane is the first subcellular organ that senses low temperature, and it includes some spanning transmembrane proteins that play important roles in cold regulation. COR413-PM1 is a novel multispanning transmembrane cold-regulated protein; however, the related functions are not clear in <i>Arabidopsis</i>. We found the tolerance to freezing stress of <i>cor413-pm1</i> was lower than wild-type (WT). A proteomics method was used to analyze the differentially abundant proteins (DAPs) between <i>cor413-pm1</i> and WT. A total of 4143 protein groups were identified and 3139 were accurately quantitated. The DAPs associated with <i>COR413-PM1</i> and freezing treatment were mainly involved in the metabolism of fatty acids, sugars, and purine. Quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) confirmed the proteomic analysis results of four proteins: fatty acid biosynthesis 1 (FAB1) is involved in fatty acid metabolism and might affect the plasma membrane structure; fructokinase 3 (FRK3) and sucrose phosphate synthase A1 (SPSA1) play roles in sugar metabolism and may influence the ability of osmotic adjustment under freezing stress; and GLN phosphoribosyl pyrophosphate amidotransferase 2 (ASE2) affects freezing tolerance through purine metabolism pathways. In short, our results demonstrate that the multispanning transmembrane protein COR413-PM1 regulates plant tolerance to freezing stress by affecting the metabolism of fatty acids, sugars, and purine in <i>Arabidopsis</i>.