Proteomic divergence in Arabidopsis autopolyploids and allopolyploids and their progenitors

Autopolyploidy and allopolyploidy are common in many plants and some animals. Rapid changes in genomic composition and gene expression have been observed in both auto- and allopolyploids, but the effects of polyploidy on proteomic divergence are poorly understood. Here we report quantitative analysis of protein changes in leaves of Arabidopsis auto- and allotetraploids and their progenitors using isobaric tags for relative and absolute quantitation (iTRAQ) coupled with mass spectrometry. Over 1 000 proteins analyzed, the levels of protein divergence were relatively high (~18%) between Arabidopsis thaliana and Arabidopsis arenosa, relatively low (~6.8%) between an A. thaliana diploid and autotetraploid, and intermediate (~8.3% and 8.2%) in F1 and F8 resynthesized allotetraploids relative to the mid-parent values, respectively. This pattern of proteomic divergence was consistent with the previously reported gene expression data. In particular, many nonadditively accumulated proteins (61-6...