ABSTRACT
Durum wheat requires high nitrogen inputs to obtain the high protein concentration necessary to satisfy pasta and semolina quality criteria. Optimizing plant nitrogen use efficiency is therefore of major importance for wheat grain quality. Here, we studied the impact on grain yield, protein concentration, and for the first time on protein composition of a marine (DPI4913) and a fungal (AF086) biostimulants applied to plant leaves. A large-scale quantitative proteomics analysis of wheat flour samples led to a dataset of 1471 identified proteins. Quantitative analysis of 1391 proteins revealed 26 and 38 proteins with a significantly varying abundance after DPI4913 and AF086 treatment, respectively, with 14 proteins in common. Major effects affected proteins involved in grain technological properties like grain hardness, in storage functions with the gluten protein gamma-gliadin, in regulation processes with transcription regulator proteins, and in stress responses with biotic and abiotic stress defense proteins. The involvement of biostimulants in the abiotic stress response was further suggested by an increase in water-use efficiency for both DPI4913 (15.4%) and AF086 (9.9%) treatments. Overall, our work performed in controlled conditions showed that DPI4913 and AF086 treatments promoted grain yield while maintaining protein concentration, and positively affected protein composition for grain quality. Data are available via ProteomeXchange with identifier PXD012469.
