Determination of differentially expressed protein profiles at low temperature in garlic

Production and consumption of garlic have been increased significantly in recent years because of the increasing importance of garlic for human health. Dormancy in the clove of this plant species is very important for vegetative production. The purpose of this master's thesis study is to determine differentially expressed proteins in garlic cloves during the storage at low temperature and room temperature conditions by SDS-PAGE analysis. In the thesis, garlic genotypes, Kastamonu and PI515971 were stored for 4, 8 and 12 weeks at 4ºC and 21ºC storage temperatures. According to the results of SDS-PAGE analysis, the proteins that are about 13, 17, 19, 20, 22, 28, 30, 33, 38, and 44 kDa at 4ºC and about 13, 22, 28, 30, 33 and 38 kDa at 21ºC were found to be differentially expressed in PI515971 genotype. In the Kastamonu genotype, expression levels of 13, 22, 30, 38, 45 and 64 kDa proteins were different during the different storage periods at 4ºC. According to our results, low temperature has an important role in breaking dormancy in garlic and it also affects protein profiles. In addition, changes in total soluble protein (TCP) content were determined in the experiment. The TCP content increased significantly in both genotypes at 4ºC in storage and increased in PI515971 at 21ºC, but not in the Kastamonu genotype. As a result, under low temperature and room temperature conditions, differentially expressed proteins have been identified at different storage periods. Characterization of these proteins by subsequent studies could contribute to the elucidation of the dormancy and vernalization mechanism in garlic.