Proteomic Analysis of Drought Stress-Responsive Proteins in Rice Endosperm Affecting Grain Quality

Drought stress is one of the major abiotic stresses in agriculture worldwide. We report here a proteomic approach to investigate the impact of post-fertilization drought on grain quality in rice seed endosperm (Oryza sativa cv. IR-64). Plants were stressed for 4 days at 3 days before heading. Total proteins of endosperm were extracted and separated by two-dimensional gel electrophoresis. Not many protein spots showed differential accumulation in drought-stressed samples. More than 400 protein spots were reproducibly detected, including three that were up-regulated and five down-regulated. Mass spectrometry analysis and database searching helped us to identify six spots representing different proteins. Functionally, the identified proteins were related to protein synthesis and carbohydrate metabolism, such as Granule-Bound Starch Synthase (GBSS, Wx protein), which is thought to play a very important role in starch biosynthesis and quality, a very crucial factor in determining rice grain quality.