Proteomics and redox-proteomics of the effects of herbicides on a wild-type wine Saccharomyces cerevisiae strain

Several toxicological and environmental problems are associated with the extensive use of agricultural pesticides, such as herbicides. Nevertheless, little is known about the toxic effects of formulated herbicides, since many studies have been carried out using pure active molecules alone. In this work, we used as an eukaryotic model system an autochthonous wine yeast strain to investigate the effects of three commercial herbicides, currently used in the same geographical area from where this strain had been isolated. We carried out a comparative proteomic analysis to study the effects at the protein level of the herbicide-related stress, and found that the herbicides tested can alter the yeast proteome producing responses that share homologies with those observed treating yeast cells with the herbicide 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D) or with well-known oxidizing agents. We evaluated, through redox-proteomic techniques, protein carbonylation as a biomarker of oxidative stress. This analysis showed that herbicide-induced carbonylation is a dynamic phenomenon with degrees of selectivity.