ORIGINAL ARTICLE Stress signaling in response to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon exposure in Arabidopsis thaliana involves a nucleoside diphosphate kinase, NDPK-3 Hong Liu • David Weisman • Ling Tang • Long Tan • Wen-ke Zhang • Zong-hua Wang • Yan-he Huang • Wen-xiong Lin • Xuan-ming Liu • Ada ´n Colo ´n-Carmona Received: 26 February 2014 / Accepted: 22 August 2014 / Published online: 16 September 2014 Ó Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2014 Abstract Main conclusion The study is the first to reveal the proteomic response in plants to a single PAH stress, and indicates that NDPK3 is a positive regulator in the Arabidopsis response to phenanthrene stress. Abstract Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are highly carcinogenic pollutants that are byproducts of car- bon-based fuel combustion, and tend to persist in the environment for long periods of time. PAHs elicit complex, damaging responses in plants, and prior research at the physiological, biochemical, and transcriptional levels has indicated that reactive oxygen species (ROS) and oxidative stress play major roles in the PAH response. However, the proteomic response has remained largely unexplored. This study hypothesized that the proteomic response in Arabi- dopsis thaliana to phenanthrene, a model PAH, would include a strong oxidative stress signature, and would provide leads to potential signaling molecules involved. To explore that proteomic signature, we performed 2D-PAGE experiments and identified 30 proteins levels that were significantly altered including catalases (CAT), ascorbate peroxidase (APX), peroxiredoxins (POD), glutathione-S- transferase, and glutathione reductase. Also upregulated was nucleoside diphosphate kinase 3 (NDPK-3), a protein known to have metabolic and stress signaling functions. To address whether NDPK-3 functions upstream of the oxi- dative stress response, we measured levels of stress- responsive enzymes in NDPK-3 overexpressor, loss-of- function knockout, and wild-type plant lines. In the NDPK- 3 overexpressor, the enzyme activities of APX, CAT, POD, as well as superoxide dismutase were all increased com- pared to wild type; in the NDPK-3 knockout line, these enzymes had reduced activity. This pattern occurred in untreated as well as phenanthrene-treated plants. These data support a model in which NDPK-3 is a positive reg- ulator of the Arabidopsis stress response to PAHs. Keywords Abiotic stress Á Nucleoside diphosphate kinase-3 Á Plant Á Phenanthrene Á Positive regulator Abbreviations APX Ascorbate peroxidase CAT Catalases MDA Malondialdehyde NDPK-3 Nucleoside diphosphate kinase 3 PAH Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons PCD Programmed cell death POD Peroxiredoxins ROS Reactive oxygen species H. Liu and D. Weisman contributed equally to this work. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s00425-014-2161-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. H. Liu (&) Á L. Tan Á Y. Huang College of Resources and Environment, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou 350002, China e-mail: hongliu@fjau.edu.cn D. Weisman Á A. Colo ´n-Carmona (&) Department of Biology, University of Massachusetts, 100 Morrissey Blvd, Boston, MA 02125-3393, USA e-mail: adan.colon-carmona@umb.edu L. Tang Á W. Zhang Á Z. Wang Á W. Lin The School of Life Sciences, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou 350002, China X. Liu Department of Life Science, College of Biology, Hunan University, Changsha 410082, China 123 Planta (2015) 241:95–107 DOI 10.1007/s00425-014-2161-8