Comparative proteomic analysis of pepper (Capsicum annuum L.) seedlings under selenium stress

Selenium (Se) is an essential trace element for human and animal health. Se fertilizer has been used to increase the Se content in crops to meet the Se requirements in humans and animals. To address the challenge of Se poisoning in plants, the mechanisms underlying Se-induced stress in plants must be understood. Here, to elucidate the effects of Se stress on the protein levels in pepper, we used an integrated approach involving tandem mass tag labeling, high performance liquid chromatography fractionation, and mass spectrometry-based analysis. A total of 4,693 proteins were identified, 3,938 of which yielded quantitative information. Among them, the expression of 172 proteins was up-regulated, and the expression of 28 proteins was down-regulated in the Se/mock treatment comparison. According to the above data, we performed a systematic bioinformatics analysis of all identified proteins and differentially expressed proteins (DEPs). The DEPs were most strongly associated with the terms “metabolic process,” “posttranslational modification, protein turnover, chaperones,” and “protein processing in endoplasmic reticulum” according to Gene Ontology, eukaryotic orthologous groups classification, and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes enrichment analysis, respectively. Furthermore, several heat shock proteins were identified as DEPs. These results provide insights that may facilitate further studies on the pepper proteome expressed downstream of the Se stress response. Our data revealed that the responses of pepper to Se stress involve various pathways.