Research on the Rice Proteome: The Contribution of Proteomics Technology in the Creation of Abiotic Stress-Tolerant Plants

Proteomics techniques have identified a vast number of proteins that participate in the growth of plants or their adaptation to environmental stresses. Functional analysis of those proteins will contribute to the development of high-yielding crops through artificial manipulation of the basic life phenomena of plants or through the assessment of their stress tolerance. The conditions in almost all farmlands are suboptimal for plant growth, resulting in a calculation that causes the loss to three quarters of the potential yield of crops. Breeding of stress-tolerant cultivars has been hampered by the paucity of information on molecular events underlying stress tolerance. A comparative analysis of the response of plants to stress at the protein level, together with physiological measurements, will assist in identifying the genes and pathways that are crucial for stress tolerance. This review examines analyses of the rice proteome under abiotic stress and the potential contribution of proteomics technology in the creation of abiotic stress-tolerant plants.