Exploring Regulatory Roles of Plant Thylakoid-Bound Proteins Involved in Abiotic Stress Responses

Abiotic stress is triggered by unfavorable environments such as drought, severe heat, heavy metals, soil saturation, high-intensity light, and high salinity. These, in turn greatly affect photosynthesis, which has a large effect on the growth and development of plants. Plant survival in a changing environment depends on the ability of the plant to rapidly adjust its metabolism and photosynthetic processes. For a long time, it has been known that the thylakoid and its lumen play a crucial role in plant responses to the environment in terms of oxygen evolution, electron transfer, and photoprotection. Abiotic stress has a direct effect on photosynthetic activity by disrupting all photosynthetic processes, such as both photosystems I (PSI) and II (PSII), electron transport, carbon fixation, ATP generation, and stomatal conductance. Thylakoid-bound proteins have recently been discovered to play roles in a variety of physiological processes, most notably in the modulation of thylakoid biogenesis, as well as the photosynthetic protein complexes' activity and turnover. These proteins are particularly important in controlling photosystem I, photosystem II, NAD(P)H dehydrogenase-like complexes, and response to various abiotic stresses. According to the proteome study, the thylakoid contains at least 335 different proteins in Arabidopsis thaliana . However, the roles of the majority of thylakoid and lumen proteins involved in oxidative stress remain unknown. This review provides an in-depth analysis at the thylakoid-bound proteins and discusses how various genes get modulated in response to the abiotic stresses.