The enigma of eIF5A in the iron deficiency response of Arabidopsis

Iron (Fe) deficiency is a nutritional disorder that poses severe problems in agriculture and health due to decreased yield of crop plants and poor quality of edible plant parts. Plants respond to suboptimal Fe availability with a suite of responses, aimed at improving Fe acquisition and re-establishing cellular Fe homeostasis. In a recent study, we reported a comprehensive analysis of Fe deficiency-induced changes in the Arabidopsis root proteome using iTRAQ (Isobaric Tag for Relative and Absolute Quantification) differential LC/MS/MS. Proteins that differentially accumulate upon Fe deficiency were quantitatively identified from a total of 4,454 proteins that were detected in root cells. The abundance of several RNA-binding proteins without defined functions in the Fe deficiency response was increased by Fe deficiency. Among these were two members of the conserved eukaryotic elongation factor 5A (eIF5A) family. Due to a lack of responsiveness of the corresponding genes at the transcriptional level, these proteins have not been identified in transcriptional profiling studies. eIF5A plays an important role in regulating translation under stress conditions in eukaryotic cells and may be critical in adapting plants to prevailing environmental conditions.