Comparative translational reprogramming of Glycine max during mechanical wounding

Glycine max (soybean) is a highly protein-rich legume that also contains oils and vitamins. Unfortunately, soybean faces many biotic and abiotic stresses including heat, drought, pests, wounds, infections, and salinity, which limits the crop productivity. Among these, mechanical wounding (MW) causes significant harm to plants, creates a passage for invading pathogens, and disrupts plant metabolism. Thus, exploring soybean responses at the molecular and biochemical levels during mechanical damage is essential. Additionally, MW resembles insect bites, which offers important insights into the immune systems identical to MW and pest attacks. In this investigation, we executed a comparative proteome evaluation of the PUSA9712 soybean variety following MW. Based on specifications of log2FC ≥ 1 and p-value ≤ 0.05, the study disclosed 786 differentially abundant proteins (DAPs) upon MW, among which 294 were elevated and 492 were down-regulated. The function annotation and pathway analysis of DAPs displayed their role in ROS signaling, flavonoid biosynthesis, ABA synthesis, JA-synthesis, defense against pathogens, fatty acid synthesis, brassinosteroid (BR) signaling, carbohydrate metabolism, proteolysis, calcium signaling, and protein kinase pathway. Lipoxygenase, V-type ATPases, Annexin, NsLTP, and ATP-dependent Clp protease proteolytic subunit DAPs can be promising candidates to strengthen soybean crop's resilience to mechanical damage and pest/pathogen attacks and need further functional characterisation.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12298-025-01562-w.