SlTAS14-mediated proteomic reprogramming enhances salt stress tolerance in tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) plants

• Overexpression of SlTAS14 improves tomato salt tolerance. • SlTAS14 affects the expression of proteins in oxidation–reduction and energy production process. • The enhancement of tomato salt tolerance by SlTAS14 may be related to the expression of ascorbate peroxidase and fructose -bisphosphate aldolase. Salt stress is a major environmental challenge that adversely affects the growth and development of tomato plants. Hence, understanding the underlied molecular mechanisms is essential for increasing salt tolerance of tomato plants. Here, we demonstrated that the YSK 2 -type dehydrin SlTAS14 gene could be induced by salt stress in both roots and leaves, and its overexpression improved salt tolerance of tomato plants. We further performed data-independent acquisition (DIA) proteomics analysis in wild-type (WT) and SlTAS14 overexpression ( SlTAS14 -OE) tomato lines, and identified 3111 differentially expressed proteins (DEPs) in WT-RS vs. WT-R group and 895 DEPs in OE-RS vs. WT-RS group. A total of 461 shared proteins were identified between these two comparison groups, with 45 co-upregulated and 98 co-downregulated DEPs. Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) analysis indicated that these 143 DEPs were significantly enriched in several metabolic pathways, including glycolysis/gluconenogenesis, phenylpropanoid biosynthesis, glutathione metabolism, isoquinoline alkaloid biosynthesis, starch and sucrose metabolism, and linoleic acid metabolism, suggesting their potential involvement in salt stress response regulated by SlTAS14. Our results provide a comprehensive functional validation of SlTAS14, supporting its role as a key regulator in coordinating proteomic adaptation to salt stress, and also offer valuable proteomics insights for the breeding of salt-tolerant tomato varieties.