Project description:Geomagnetic field (GMF) has been present since the beginning of plant evolution. Recently, some researchers have focused their efforts on employing magnetic fields (MF) higher than GMF to improve the seed germination, growth and harvest of agriculturally important crop plants, as MFs are inexpensive and environment friendly technique. In this study, we have employed different treatments considering MF of 7 mT (milliTesla) for different time point of the exposure including 1, 3, and 6 h as treatment, following longest exposure for 5 consecutive days, 6h per day in barely seeds. The results showed a positive impact of MF on growth characteristics for 5 days old seedlings including seed germination rate, root and shoot length and biomass weight, however, significant effects observed in long exposure. Moreover, ~5 day’s delay of flowering in pretreated plants was observed. We have used a shotgun proteomics approach to identify changes in the protein signatures of root and shoot tissues under MF effects. In total, we identified 2896 proteins. Thirty eight proteins in shoot and 15 proteins in root showed significant changes under MF effect. Proteins involved in primary metabolic pathways were increased in contrast to the proteins with metal ion binding function, proteins contain iron ion in their structure and proteins involved in electron transfer chain were decreased significantly in treated tissues. The prevalent biological processes of the up-regulated proteins were carbohydrate metabolic process, oxidation-reduction process and cell redox homeostasis, while down regulated processes include translation and protein refolding. In general, shoot response was more significant to MF effect compared with root tissue leading to the identification of 41 shoot specific proteins. This study provides a comprehensive view of proteome regulation in response to MF during early stage of growth and development in barley.
