Identifying root-secreted proteases in Arabidopsis thaliana: an Activity-Based Protein Profiling approach.

Proteases are involved in many physiological processes during the whole life of the plant, such as embryonic development, defense against pathogens, nutrition or mycorrhiza creation. However, the functions of many of the 800 proteases of Arabidopsis thaliana still remain unknown.
Besides discovering new functions, studying proteases can also result in improving plant biotechnology. Indeed, plants can be used as hosts for recombinant protein production. Some proteins of interest require to be secreted in order to fold properly, but production yields are limited due to their degradation by endogenous extracellular proteases.
The aim of our study is to identify active root-secreted proteases of Arabidopsis thaliana. Their activity was first analyzed by in vitro incubation with a target protein (BSA) at different values of pH and in the presence of proteases inhibitors. This analysis identified serine proteases as the major protease class involved in BSA degradation. Then, an Activity-Based Protein Profiling approach led to the labeling of two active serine proteases in the root-secreted sample. Finally, a further step towards the identification by mass spectrometry, based on affinity purification, was developed.