Data mining of 'Arabidopsis thaliana' salt-response proteins based on bioinformatics analysis

Salt stress limits the growth and productivity of many plants. To further understand plant protein salt-response mechanisms, the proteins of model plant 'Arabidopisis thaliana' was selected and mined based on bioinformatic analysis and experimental biology verification. With the features of salt-response, 292 of 10,835 reviewed 'Arabidopsis thaliana' proteins were screened from Uniprot public proteins database. Among 292 salt-response proteins, 67, 71, and 54 proteins showed the cross-talk with cold, drought and heavy metal stress, respectively. Function classifications revealed the above four groups (292, 67, 71, and 54 proteins) were mainly associated with reactive oxygen species scavenging and defense, catalytic activity, signal transduction, and energy metabolism. Activities of superoxide dismutase and peroxidase in both 'Arabidopisis thaliana' root and leaf were determined under salt (150mmol.L-1 NaCl), cold (10degreeC), drought (200mmol.L-1 mannitol), and heavy metal (10mumol.L-1 CdCl2) stress. The experimental results were consistent with bioinformatic analysis. This work improves our knowledge of salt tolerance and provides clues to discover salt tolerance protein targets for plant growth and crop productivity.