Salinization seriously threatens land use efficiency and crop yields across the world. Understanding the mechanisms plants use to protect against salt stress will help breeders develop salt-tolerant vegetable crops. Okra (Abelmoschus esculentus L.) is an important vegetable crop of the mallow family, which is now cultivated in warm regions worldwide. To understand the effects of salt stress on the protein level of okra, a comparative proteomic analysis of okra seedlings grown in the presence of 0 or 300 mmol L− 1 NaCl treatment was performed using an integrated approach of Tandem Mass Tag labeling and LC-MS/MS integrated approach. A total of 7179 proteins were identified in this study, for which quantitative information was available for 5774 proteins. In the NaCl/control comparison group, there were 317 differentially expressed proteins (DEPs), of which 165 proteins were upregulated and 152 proteins downregulated in the presence of NaCl. Based on the above data, we carried out a systematic bioinformatics analysis of proteins with information, including protein annotation, domain characteristics, functional classification, and pathway enrichment. Enriched gene ontology and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathway analysis showed that the DEPs were most strongly associated with “response to stress” and “protein processing in endoplasmic reticulum”. Furthermore, several heat shock proteins were identified as DEPs. This information provides a reference direction for further research on the okra proteome in the downstream of the salt stress response, with our data revealing that the responses of okra to salt stress involves by various pathways.

The chaperonin 60 (Cpn60) protein is of great importance to plants due to its involvement in modulating the folding of numerous chloroplast protein polypeptides. In chloroplasts, Cpn60 is differentiated into two subunit types—Cpn60α and Cpn60β and the rice genome encodes three α and three β plastid chaperonin subunits. However, the functions of Cpn60 family members in rice were poorly understood. In order to investigate the molecular mechanism of OsCpn60β1, we attempted to disrupt the OsCpn60β1 gene by CRISPR/Cas9-mediated targeted mutagenesis in this study. We succeeded in the production of homozygous OsCpn60β1 knockout rice plants. The OsCpn60β1 mutant displayed a striking albino leaf phenotype and was seedling lethal. Electron microscopy observation demonstrated that chloroplasts were severely disrupted in the OsCpn60β1 mutant. In addition, OsCpn60β1 was located in the chloroplast and OsCpn60β1 is constitutively expressed in various tissues particularly in the green tissues. The label-free qualitative proteomics showed that photosynthesis-related pathways and ribosomal pathways were significantly inhibited in OsCpn60β1 mutants. These results indicate that OsCpn60β1 is essential for chloroplast development in rice.

Fritillaria is a perennial herb with medicinal properties. There are 158 Fritillaria species worldwide, 33 of which have reported therapeutic efficacy. Alkaloids are the principal constituents in Fritillaria. Fritillaria species growing at 2700–4000 m are the sources of extract namely Chuan Beimu (the Pharmacopoeia of the People’s Republic of China, 2020 Edition), with low biomass, mainly containing more 5α-cevanine isosteroidal alkaloids with cis-configuration. In contrast, species growing below 1500 m are usually taller than 50 cm, and they mainly contain more trans-configuration isosteroidal alkaloids. There are two schemes of the biosynthetic pathways of steroidal alkaloids with different frameworks and catalytic reactions and combined high-throughput omics data. Based on the distributed elevations, Fritillaria species were divided into three major categories, which met classification features based on phylogenetic analysis or morphological features. Artificial or in vitro cultivations are effective strategies for balancing economical requirements and ecological protection. Fritillaria species growing at lower altitudes can be cultivated by bulb reproduction, but species growing at higher altitudes still rely mainly on gathering a large number of wild resources. Integration of asexual tissue culture and bulb reproduction with sexual artificial or imitated wild cultivation may create a very promising and effective way to maintain sustainable industrial development of Fritillaria.

Soil salinization is a major environmental stresses that seriously threatens land use efficiency and crop yields worldwide. Although the overall response of plants to NaCl has been well studied, the contribution of protein phosphorylation to the detoxification and tolerance of NaCl in okra (Abelmoschus esculentus L.) seedlings is unclear. The molecular bases of okra seedlings’ responses to 300 mM NaCl stress are discussed in this study. Using a combination of affinity enrichment, tandem mass tag (TMT) labeling and high-performance liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry analysis, a large-scale phosphoproteome analysis was performed in okra. A total of 4341 phosphorylation sites were identified on 2550 proteins, of which 3453 sites of 2268 proteins provided quantitative information. We found that 91 sites were upregulated and 307 sites were downregulated in the NaCl/control comparison group. Subsequently, we performed a systematic bioinformatics analysis including gene ontology annotation, domain annotation, subcellular localization, and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathway annotation. The latter revealed that the differentially expressed proteins were most strongly associated with ‘photosynthesis antenna proteins’ and ‘RNA degradation’. These differentially expressed proteins probably play important roles in salt stress responses in okra. The results should help to increase our understanding of the molecular mechanisms of plant post-translational modifications in response to salt stress.

As a medicinal and edible plant, basil (Ocimum basilicum Linn. var. pilosum (Willd.) Benth.) has rich nutrition and significant economic value. The increase in heat stress caused by global warming adversely affects the growth and yield of plants. However, the response mechanism of basil to heat stress is poorly understood. This work investigated the changes in phenotype, metabolome, and transcriptome in basil under heat stress. The results showed that heat stress triggered severe oxidative damage and photosynthesis inhibition in basil. Metabonomic analysis showed that, compared to the control group, 29 significantly differentially accumulated metabolites (DAMs) were identified after 1 d of heat treatment, and 37 DAMs after the treatment of 3 d. The DAMs were significantly enriched by several pathways such as glycolysis or gluconeogenesis; aminoacyl-tRNA biosynthesis; and alanine, aspartate, and glutamate metabolism. In addition, transcriptomic analysis revealed that 15,066 and 15,445 genes were differentially expressed after 1 d and 3 d of heat treatment, respectively. Among them, 11,183 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were common response genes under 1 d and 3 d heat treatment, including 5437 down-regulated DEGs and 6746 up-regulated DEGs. All DEGs were significantly enriched in various KEGG (Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes) pathways, most dominated by glyoxylate and dicarboxylate metabolism, followed by starch and sucrose metabolism, and by the biosynthesis and metabolism of other secondary metabolites. Overall, all the above results provided some valuable insights into the molecular mechanism of basil in response to heat stress.