Protein lysine methylation contributes to modulating the response of sensitive and tolerant Arabidopsis species to cadmium stress

Nelson Serre (1) , Manon Sarthou (1) , Océane Gigarel (1) , Sylvie Figuet (1) , Massimiliano Corso (2) , Justine Choulet (1) , Valerie Rofidal (3, 4) , Claude Alban (1) , Veronique Santoni (3, 4) , Jacques Bourguignon (1) , Nathalie Verbruggen (2) , Stéphane Ravanel (1)

1 MetalStress - Plantes, Stress & Métaux
2 Laboratoire de Physiologie et de Génétique Moléculaire des Plantes
3 BPMP - Biochimie et Physiologie Moléculaire des Plantes
4 MSPP - Plateforme de Spectrométrie de Masse Protéomique - Mass Spectrometry Proteomics Platform

The mechanisms underlying the response and adaptation of plants to excess of trace elements are not fully described. Here, we analyzed the importance of protein lysine methylation for plants to cope with cadmium. We analyzed the effect of cadmium on lysine-methylated proteins and protein lysine methyltransferases (KMTs) in two cadmium-sensitive species, Arabidopsis thaliana and A. lyrata, and in three populations of A. halleri with contrasting cadmium accumulation and tolerance traits. We showed that some proteins are differentially methylated at lysine residues in response to Cd and that a few genes coding KMTs are regulated by cadmium. Also, we showed that nine out of 23 A. thaliana mutants disrupted in KMT genes have a tolerance to cadmium that is significantly different from that of wild-type seedlings. We further characterized two of these mutants, one was knocked-out in the calmodulin lysine methyltransferase gene and displayed increased tolerance to cadmium, the other was interrupted in a KMT gene of unknown function and showed a decreased capacity to cope with cadmium. Together, our results showed that lysine methylation of non-histone proteins is impacted by cadmium and that several methylation events are important for modulating the response of Arabidopsis plants to cadmium stress.

Mots clés: tolerance; response; protein methylation; post-translational modification; Arabidopsis halleri; Arabidopsis thaliana; methyltransferase; metal stress; cadmium

Domaines: Botanique; Sciences du Vivant [q-bio]; Biochimie, Biologie Moléculaire; Biologie végétale; Ecotoxicologie

Nelson Serre, Manon Sarthou, Océane Gigarel, Sylvie Figuet, Massimiliano Corso, et al.. Protein lysine methylation contributes to modulating the response of sensitive and tolerant Arabidopsis species to cadmium stress. Plant, Cell and Environment, 2020, 43 (3), pp.760-774. ⟨10.1111/pce.13692⟩. ⟨hal-02379001⟩