Unravelling mesosulfuron-methyl phytotoxicity and metabolism-based herbicide resistance in Alopecurus aequalis: Insight into regulatory mechanisms using proteomics

Abstract Non-target-site based resistance (NTSR), a poorly understood multigenic trait, has evolved as the greatest threat to crop production worldwide, by endowing weed plants an unpredictable pattern of resistance to herbicides. Our recent work with multiple-herbicide-resistant shortawn foxtail ( Alopecurus aequalis Sobol.) biotype has preliminary indicated that cytochrome P450s-involved enhanced rate of mesosulfuron-methyl metabolism may involve in the NTSR. Here by further determining the differences in glutathione S-transferase (GST) activity and uptake and metabolic rates of mesosulfuron between resistant (R) and susceptible (S) A. aequalis plants, and associating them with endogenous differently regulated proteins (DEPs) identified from combinational proteomics analyses, we provided direct evidences on the enhanced herbicide degradation in resistant plants. Subsequently, the physiological phenotypes of photosynthesis, chlorophyll fluorescence, and antioxidation were compared between R and S plants and linked with correlative DEPs, indicating a series of key pathways including solar energy capture, photosynthetic electron transport, redox homeostasis, carbon fixation, photorespiration, and reactive oxygen species scavenging in susceptible plants were broken or severely damaged by mesosulfuron stress. In comparison, resistant plants have evolved enhanced herbicide degradation to minimize the accumulation of mesosulfuron and protect the photosynthesis and ascorbate-glutathione cycle against the adverse effects of chemical injury, giving A. aequalis plants a NTSR phenotype. Additionally, three key proteins respectively annotated as esterase, GST, and glucosyltransferase were identified and enabled as potential transcriptional markers for quick diagnosing the metabolic mesosulfuron resistance in A. aequalis species.