Alteration in the gene expression of glehnia littoralis seedlings exposed to culture filtrate of penicillium citrinum KACC43900

Plant growth and gibberellins (GAs) biosynthesis are two separate but linked processes, involving many genes but fewer have been reported for their role in plant growth and development. Due to little information on the genes involved in such processes, the known plant growth promoting and GAs producing fungal endophyte Penicillium citrinum KACC43900 was used as potential tool to obtain a blueprint of the putative growth promoting and GAs synthesizing proteins. For proteomic analysis, the seedlings of Glehnia littoralis were treated with culture filtrate of P. citrinum KACC43900, which revealed significant differences between 2 dimensional gel electrophoresis profile of the crude protein extracts of the treated and control samples. Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization analysis of the 56 selected spots led to the identification of 41 proteins. A significant number (31.5%) of these highly expressed proteins were associated with plant growth regulation, including beta-expansin EXPB4, ent-kaur 16-ene synthase, gibberellin 3-oxidase, and cytochrome P450 family proteins. Proteins involved in regulating energy metabolism and intracellular redox conditions, such as glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase and ribulose-1,5-bisphospahate carboxylase/oxygenase, were also expressed. It was concluded that culture filtrate of P. citrinum KACC43900 altered the gene expression pattern of host G. littoralis. Current study highlighted the importance of proteomics as a starting tool for any post-genomic research.