Plant biology breakthrough

Plants - like people - come in all shapes and sizes.

And just like scientists want to understand the components of the human body, to treat disease and improve our lives, they also want to understand how plants thrive, get disease, succumb or survive.

It's a real problem that affects us, too. One powerful way scientists investigate these questions is through proteomics, the study of the proteins that live and work inside cells. This is true whether those cells reside inside a human body, an animal, a plant or a virus.

While much ground has been gained in understanding human biology using proteomics, progress has been slower for those studying plants.

This is because plant tissues (think leaves, pollen, seeds) have a hard exterior shell and a thick cell wall to protect the proteins and other essential components inside and to keep unwanted materials out. These protections serve a purpose but also create a barrier, scientifically speaking.

Now, University of Delaware researchers report in the journal Plant Physiology a validated method to digest proteins inside of intact plant cells, overcoming this long-standing hurdle in plant proteomics.

Yanbao Yu, director of proteomics in UD's Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, said it represents a "breakthrough for the plant proteomics community" that opens a new window for plant biology to answer previously difficult-to-study questions.