Integrative Proteomic and Phosphoproteomic Profiling Reveals the Salt-Responsive Mechanisms in Two Rice Varieties (Oryza Sativa subsp. Japonica and Indica)

Salinity stress induces ionic and osmotic imbalances in rice plants that in turn negatively affect the photosynthesis rate, resulting in growth retardation and yield penalty. Efforts have, therefore, been carried out to understand the mechanism of salt tolerance, however, the complexity of biological processes at proteome levels remains a major challenge. Here, we performed a comparative proteome and phosphoproteome profiling of microsome enriched fractions of salt-tolerant (cv. IR73; indica) and salt-susceptible (cv. Dongjin/DJ; japonica) rice varieties. This approach led to the identification of 5856 proteins, of which 473 and 484 proteins showed differential modulation between DJ and IR73 sample sets, respectively. The phosphoproteome analysis led to the identification of a total of 10,873 phosphopeptides of which 2929 and 3049 phosphopeptides showed significant differences in DJ and IR73 sample sets, respectively. The integration of proteome and phosphoproteome data showed activation of ABA and Ca²⁺ signaling components exclusively in the salt-tolerant variety IR73 in response to salinity stress. Taken together, our results highlight the changes at proteome and phosphoproteome levels and provide a mechanistic understanding of salinity stress tolerance in rice.