Abiotic environmental stress induced changes in the Arabidopsis thaliana chloroplast, mitochondria and peroxisome proteomes

Exposure to adverse abiotic environmental conditions causes oxidative stress in plants, leading to debilitation and death or to response and tolerance. The subcellular energy organelles (chloroplast, mitochondria and peroxisomes) in plants are responsible for major metabolic processes including photosynthesis, photorespiration, oxidative phosphorylation, β-oxidation and the tricarboxylic acid cycle. Here we analyze data and review a collection of both whole tissue and organellar proteomic studies that have investigated the effects of environmental stress in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana. We assess these data from an organellar perspective to begin to build an understanding of the changes in protein abundance within these organelles during environmental stresses. We found 279 claims of proteins that change in abundance that could be assigned to protein components of the energy organelles. These could be placed into eight different functional categories and nearly 80% of the specific protein isoforms detected were only reported to change in a single environmental stress. We propose primary and secondary mechanisms in organelles by which the protein changes observed could be mediated in order to begin developing an integrated and mechanistic understanding of environmental stress response.