Developmentally regulated proteins during differentiation of root system and ectomycorrhiza in Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) with Suillus bovinus

Total and radiolabelled proteins from Pinus sylvestris roots, ectomycorrhiza and the ectomycorrhizal fungus Suillus bovinus, were analyzed after separation by 2-D gel electrophoresis. The purpose was to address the contribution of individual proteins to the development of ectomycorrhiza. In Pinus sylvestris, ectomycorrhiza forms only in the short roots and therefore special attention was paid to the proteins of short roots before formation of ectomycorrhiza. A main result, from comparisons of protein amounts in main and lateral root tips and short roots, was that the specialized growth pattern of short roots is associated with the production of five short root-specific proteins, and that several proteins of the main and lateral roots are repressed in short roots. At the morphologically different stages of the ectomycorrhiza, only few changes appeared in the amounts of the host and the symbiont proteins. Only one ectomycorrhiza-specific protein could be distinguished.