Glob Chang Biol , IF:8.555 , 2019 Jul , V25 (7) : P2275-2284 doi: 10.1111/gcb.14645
Interactions between soil heterogeneity and freezing: Implications for grassland plant diversity and relative species abundances.
Department of Biology, Western University, London, Ontario, Canada.
Plant stress resulting from soil freezing is expected to increase in northern temperate regions over the next century due to reductions in snow cover caused by climate change. Within plant communities, soil spatial heterogeneity can potentially buffer the effects of plant freezing stress by increasing the availability of soil microsites that function as microrefugia. Moreover, increased species richness resulting from soil heterogeneity can increase the likelihood of stress-tolerant species being present in a community. We used a field experiment to examine interactions between soil heterogeneity and increased freezing intensity (achieved via snow removal) on plant abundance and diversity in a grassland. Patches of topsoil were mixed with either sand or woodchips to create heterogeneous and homogeneous treatments, and plant community responses to snow removal were assessed over three growing seasons. Soil heterogeneity interacted significantly with snow removal, but it either buffered or exacerbated the snow removal response depending on the specific substrate (sand vs. woodchips) and plant functional group. In turn, snow removal influenced plant responses to soil heterogeneity; for example, adventive forb cover responded to increased heterogeneity under ambient snow cover, but this effect diminished with snow removal. Our results reveal that soil heterogeneity can play an important role in determining plant responses to changes in soil freezing stress resulting from global climate change. While the deliberate creation of soil microsites in ecological restoration projects as a land management practice could increase the frequency of microrefugia that mitigate plant community responses to increased freezing stress, the design of these microsites must be optimized, given that soil heterogeneity also has the potential to exacerbate freezing stress responses.
PMID: 30963661
Glob Chang Biol , IF:8.555 , 2019 Jul , V25 (7) : P2209-2220 doi: 10.1111/gcb.14642
Rethinking false spring risk.
Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University, Boston, Massachusetts.; Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts.; NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, New York, New York.; French National Institute for Agricultural Research, INRA, US1116 AgroClim, Avignon, France.; Forest and Conservation Sciences, Faculty of Forestry, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia.
Temperate plants are at risk of being exposed to late spring freezes. These freeze events-often called false springs-are one of the strongest factors determining temperate plants species range limits and can impose high ecological and economic damage. As climate change may alter the prevalence and severity of false springs, our ability to forecast such events has become more critical, and it has led to a growing body of research. Many false spring studies largely simplify the myriad complexities involved in assessing false spring risks and damage. While these studies have helped advance the field and may provide useful estimates at large scales, studies at the individual to community levels must integrate more complexity for accurate predictions of plant damage from late spring freezes. Here, we review current metrics of false spring, and how, when, and where plants are most at risk of freeze damage. We highlight how life stage, functional group, species differences in morphology and phenology, and regional climatic differences contribute to the damage potential of false springs. More studies aimed at understanding relationships among species tolerance and avoidance strategies, climatic regimes, and the environmental cues that underlie spring phenology would improve predictions at all biological levels. An integrated approach to assessing past and future spring freeze damage would provide novel insights into fundamental plant biology and offer more robust predictions as climate change progresses, which are essential for mitigating the adverse ecological and economic effects of false springs.
PMID: 30953573
Plant Biotechnol J , IF:8.154 , 2019 Jul , V17 (7) : P1316-1332 doi: 10.1111/pbi.13056
ERF109 of trifoliate orange (Poncirus trifoliata (L.) Raf.) contributes to cold tolerance by directly regulating expression of Prx1 involved in antioxidative process.
Key Laboratory of Horticultural Plant Biology, College of Horticulture and Forestry Sciences, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, China.
Ethylene-responsive factors (ERFs) have been revealed to play essential roles in a variety of physiological and biological processes in higher plants. However, functions and regulatory pathways of most ERFs in cold stress remain largely unclear. Here, we identified PtrERF109 of trifoliate orange (Poncirus trifoliata (L.) Raf.) and deciphered its role in cold tolerance. PtrERF109 was drastically up-regulated by cold, ethylene and dehydration, but repressed by salt. PtrERF109 was localized in the nucleus and displayed transcriptional activity, and the C terminus is required for the activation. Overexpression of PtrERF109 conferred enhanced cold tolerance in transgenic tobacco and lemon plants, whereas VIGS (virus-induced gene silencing)-mediated suppression of PtrERF109 in trifoliate orange led to increased cold susceptibility. PtrERF109 overexpression caused extensive transcriptional reprogramming of several suites of stress-responsive genes. Prx1 encoding class III peroxidase (POD) was one of the antioxidant genes exhibiting the greatest induction. PtrERF109 was shown to directly bind to the promoter of PtrPrx1 (trifoliate orange Prx1 homologue) and positively activated its expression. In addition, the PtrERF109-overexpressing plants exhibited significantly higher POD activity and accumulated dramatically less H2 O2 and were more tolerant to oxidative stress, whereas the VIGS plants exhibited opposite trends, in comparison with wild type. Taken together, these results indicate that PtrERF109 as a positive regulator contributes to imparting cold tolerance by, at least partly, directly regulating the POD-encoding gene to maintain a robust antioxidant capacity for effectively scavenging the reactive oxygen species. Our findings gain insight into better understanding of transcriptional regulation of antioxidant genes in response to cold stress.
PMID: 30575255
Plant Cell Environ , IF:6.362 , 2019 Jul , V42 (7) : P2065-2074 doi: 10.1111/pce.13545
Deep supercooling enabled by surface impregnation with lipophilic substances explains the survival of overwintering buds at extreme freezing.
Department of Botany, Unit Functional Plant Biology, University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria-Europe.
The frost survival mechanism of vegetative buds of angiosperms was suggested to be extracellular freezing causing dehydration, elevated osmotic potential to prevent freezing. However, extreme dehydration would be needed to avoid freezing at the temperatures down to -45 degrees C encountered by many trees. Buds of Alnus alnobetula, in common with other frost hardy angiosperms, excrete a lipophilic substance, whose functional role remains unclear. Freezing of buds was studied by infrared thermography, psychrometry, and cryomicroscopy. Buds of A. alnobetula did not survive by extracellular ice tolerance but by deep supercooling, down to -45 degrees C. An internal ice barrier prevented ice penetration from the frozen stem into the bud. Cryomicroscopy revealed a new freezing mechanism. Until now, supercooled buds lost water towards ice masses that form in the subtending stem and/or bud scales. In A. alnobetula, ice forms harmlessly inside the bud between the supercooled leaves. This would immediately trigger intracellular freezing and kill the supercooled bud in other species. In A. alnobetula, lipophilic substances (triterpenoids and flavonoid aglycones) impregnate the surface of bud leaves. These prevent extrinsic ice nucleation so allowing supercooling. This suggests a means to protect forestry and agricultural crops from extrinsic ice nucleation allowing transient supercooling during night frosts.
PMID: 30827059
Physiol Plant , IF:4.148 , 2019 Jul , V166 (3) : P772-793 doi: 10.1111/ppl.12831
A Prunus persica genome-wide RNA-seq approach uncovers major differences in the transcriptome among chilling injury sensitive and non-sensitive varieties.
Escuela de Biotecnologia, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Mayor, Santiago, Chile.; Centro de Propagacion y Conservacion Vegetal, Universidad Mayor, Santiago, Chile.; Centro de Biotecnologia Vegetal, Facultad de Ciencias de la Vida, Universidad Andres Bello, Santiago, Chile.; Departamento de Ciencias Biologicas, Universidad de Los Lagos, Osorno, Chile.; FONDAP Center for Genome Regulation, Santiago, Chile.
Chilling injury represents a major constrain for crops productivity. Prunus persica, one of the most relevant rosacea crops, have early season varieties that are resistant to chilling injury, in contrast to late season varieties, which display chilling symptoms such as mealiness (dry, sandy fruit mesocarp) after prolonged storage at chilling temperatures. To uncover the molecular processes related to the ability of early varieties to withstand mealiness, postharvest and genome-wide RNA-seq assessments were performed in two early and two late varieties. Differences in juice content and ethylene biosynthesis were detected among early and late season fruits that became mealy after exposed to prolonged chilling. Principal component and data distribution analysis revealed that cold-stored late variety fruit displayed an exacerbated and unique transcriptome profile when compared to any other postharvest condition. A differential expression analysis performed using an empirical Bayes mixture modeling approach followed by co-expression and functional enrichment analysis uncover processes related to ethylene, lipids, cell wall, carotenoids and DNA metabolism, light response, and plastid homeostasis associated to the susceptibility or resistance of P. persica varieties to chilling stress. Several of the genes related to these processes are in quantitative trait loci (QTL) associated to mealiness in P. persica. Together, these analyses exemplify how P. persica can be used as a model for studying chilling stress in plants.
PMID: 30203620
BMC Genomics , IF:3.594 , 2019 Jul , V20 (1) : P624 doi: 10.1186/s12864-019-5988-3
Comparative transcriptomic analysis reveals gene expression associated with cold adaptation in the tea plant Camellia sinensis.
State Key Laboratory of Tea Plant Biology and Utilization/International Joint Laboratory on Tea Chemistry and Health Effects, Anhui Agricultural University, West 130 Changjiang Road, Hefei, 230036, Anhui, People's Republic of China.; Department of Genetics, University of Georgia, Athens, USA.; State Key Laboratory of Tea Plant Biology and Utilization/International Joint Laboratory on Tea Chemistry and Health Effects, Anhui Agricultural University, West 130 Changjiang Road, Hefei, 230036, Anhui, People's Republic of China. weichl@ahau.edu.cn.; State Key Laboratory of Tea Plant Biology and Utilization/International Joint Laboratory on Tea Chemistry and Health Effects, Anhui Agricultural University, West 130 Changjiang Road, Hefei, 230036, Anhui, People's Republic of China. maize@uga.edu.
BACKGROUND: Low temperature restricts the planting range of all crops, but cold acclimation induces adaption to cold stress in many plants. Camellia sinensis, a perennial evergreen tree that is the source of tea, is mainly grown in warm areas. Camellia sinensis var. sinensis (CSS) has greater cold tolerance than Camellia sinensis var. assamica (CSA). To gain deep insight into the molecular mechanisms underlying cold adaptation, we investigated the physiological responses and transcriptome profiles by RNA-Seq in two tea varieties, cold resistant SCZ (classified as CSS) and cold susceptible YH9 (classified as CSA), during cold acclimation. RESULTS: Under freezing stress, lower relative electrical conductivity and higher chlorophyll fluorescence (Fv/Fm) values were detected in SCZ than in YH9 when subjected to freezing acclimation. During cold treatment, 6072 and 7749 DEGs were observed for SCZ and YH9, respectively. A total of 978 DEGs were common for both SCZ and YH9 during the entire cold acclimation process. DEGs were enriched in pathways of photosynthesis, hormone signal transduction, and transcriptional regulation of plant-pathogen interactions. Further analyses indicated that decreased expression of Lhca2 and higher expression of SnRK2.8 are correlated with cold tolerance in SCZ. CONCLUSIONS: Compared with CSA, CSS was significantly more resistant to freezing after cold acclimation, and this increased resistance was associated with an earlier expression of cold-induced genes. Because the greater transcriptional differentiation during cold acclimation in SCZ may contribute to its greater cold tolerance, our studies identify specific genes involved in photoinhibition, ABA signal conduction, and plant immunity that should be studied for understanding the processes involved in cold tolerance. Marker-assisted breeding focused on the allelic variation at these loci provides an avenue for the possible generation of CSA cultivars that have CSS-level cold tolerance.
PMID: 31366321
BMC Plant Biol , IF:3.497 , 2019 Jul , V19 (1) : P321 doi: 10.1186/s12870-019-1933-5
De novo transcriptome sequencing and gene expression profiling of Magnolia wufengensis in response to cold stress.
Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Silviculture and Conservation, Forestry College, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing, 100083, People's Republic of China.; School of Landscape Architecture, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing, 100083, People's Republic of China.; Biotechnology Research Center, China Three Gorges University, Yichang, Hubei Province, 443002, People's Republic of China.; Forestry Bureau of Wufeng County, Wufeng, Hubei Province, 443400, People's Republic of China.; Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Silviculture and Conservation, Forestry College, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing, 100083, People's Republic of China. jiazk@bjfu.edu.cn.; Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Silviculture and Conservation, Forestry College, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing, 100083, People's Republic of China. maluyi@bjfu.edu.cn.
BACKGROUND: Magnolia wufengensis is a new species of Magnolia L. and has considerable ornamental and economic value due to its unique characteristics. However, because of its characteristic of poor low temperature resistance, M. wufengensis is hardly popularization and application in the north of China. Furthermore, the mechanisms of gene regulation and signaling pathways involved in the cold-stress response remained unclear in this species. In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, we performed de novo transcriptome assembly and compared the gene expression under the natural (25 degrees C) and cold (4 degrees C) conditions for M. wufengensis seedlings. RESULTS: More than 46 million high-quality clean reads were produced from six samples (RNA was extracted from the leaves) and were used for performing de novo transcriptome assembly. A total of 59,764 non-redundant unigenes with an average length of 899 bp (N50 = 1,110) were generated. Among these unigenes, 31,038 unigenes exhibited significant sequence similarity to known genes, as determined by BLASTx searches (E-value /= 1) in the cold-treated samples, and 2,616 and 1,294 unigenes were up- and down-regulated by cold stress, respectively. Analysis of the expression patterns of 16 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) by quantitative real-time RT-PCR (qRT-PCR) confirmed the accuracy of the RNA-Seq results. Gene Ontology and KEGG pathway functional enrichment analyses allowed us to better understand these differentially expressed unigenes. The most significant transcriptomic changes observed under cold stress were related to plant hormone and signal transduction pathways, primary and secondary metabolism, and photosynthesis. In addition, 113 transcription factors, including members of the AP2-EREBP, bHLH, WRKY, MYB, NAC, HSF, and bZIP families, were identified as cold responsive. CONCLUSION: We generated a genome-wide transcript profile of M. wufengensis and a de novo-assembled transcriptome that can be used to analyze genes involved in biological processes. In this study, we provide the first report of transcriptome sequencing of cold-stressed M. wufengensis. Our findings provide important clues not only for understanding the molecular mechanisms of cold stress in plants but also for introducing cold hardiness into M. wufengensis.
PMID: 31319815
Am J Bot , IF:3.038 , 2019 Jul , V106 (7) : P922-934 doi: 10.1002/ajb2.1320
Freezing resistance, safety margins, and survival vary among big sagebrush populations across the western United States.
U. S. Geological Survey, Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center, 970 S. Lusk Street, Boise, ID, 83706, USA.; USDA Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, 1221 S. Main St., Moscow, ID, 83843, USA.
PREMISE: Physiological responses to temperature extremes are considered strong drivers of species' demographic responses to climate variability. Plants are typically classified as either avoiders or tolerators in their freezing-resistance mechanism, but a gradient of physiological-threshold freezing responses may exist among individuals of a species. Moreover, adaptive significance of physiological freezing responses is poorly characterized, particularly under warming conditions that relax selection on cold hardiness. METHODS: Freezing responses were measured in winter and again for new foliage in spring for 14 populations of Artemisia tridentata collected throughout its range and planted in a warm common garden. The relationships of the freezing responses to survival were evaluated in the warm garden and in two colder gardens. RESULTS: Winter and spring freezing resistance were not correlated and appeared to be under differing selection regimes, as evident in correlations with different population climate of origin variables. All populations resisted considerably lower temperatures in winter than in spring, with populations from more continental climates showing narrower freezing safety margins (difference in temperatures at which ice-nucleation occurs and 50% reduction in chlorophyll fluorescence occurs) in spring. Populations with greater winter freezing resistance had lower survivorship in the warmest garden, while populations with greater spring freezing resistance had lower survivorship in a colder garden. CONCLUSIONS: These survivorship patterns relative to physiological thresholds suggest excess freezing resistance may incur a survival cost that likely relates to a trade-off between carbon gain and freezing resistance during critical periods of moisture availability. This cost has implications for seed moved from cooler to warmer environments and for plants growing in warming environments.
PMID: 31294835
G3 (Bethesda) , IF:2.781 , 2019 Jul , V9 (7) : P2051-2060 doi: 10.1534/g3.119.400245
Sequencing of a Wild Apple (Malus baccata) Genome Unravels the Differences Between Cultivated and Wild Apple Species Regarding Disease Resistance and Cold Tolerance.
College of Horticulture, Northwest A&F University, Yangling 712100, Shannxi, China.; BGI Genomics, BGI-Shenzhen, Shenzhen 518083, China.; BGI Genomics, BGI-Shenzhen, Shenzhen 518083, China anna206@nwsuaf.edu.cn jijingjing@bgi.com.; College of Life Sciences, Northwest A&F University, Yangling 712100, Shannxi, China anna206@nwsuaf.edu.cn jijingjing@bgi.com.
Malus baccata is one of four wild apple species that can hybridize with the cultivated apple species (Malus domestica). It is widely used in high-latitude apple-producing areas as a rootstock and breeding resource because of its disease resistance, and cold tolerance. A lack of a reference genome has limited the application of M. baccata for apple breeding. We present a draft reference genome for M. baccata The assembled sequence consisting of 665 Mb, with a scaffold N50 value of 452 kb, included transposable elements (413 Mb) and 46,114 high-quality protein-coding genes. According to a genetic map derived from 390 sibling lines, 72% of the assembly and 85% of the putative genes were anchored to 17 linkage groups. Many of the M. baccata genes under positive selection pressure were associated with plant-pathogen interaction pathways. We identified 2,345 Transcription factor-encoding genes in 58 families in the M. baccata genome. Genes related to disease defense and cold tolerance were also identified. A total of 462 putative nucleotide-binding site (NBS)-leucine-rich-repeat (LRR) genes, 177 Receptor-like kinase (RLK) and 51 receptor-like proteins (RLP) genes were identified in this genome assembly. The M. baccata genome contained 3978 cold-regulated genes, and 50% of these gene promoter containing DREB motif which can be induced by CBF gene. We herein present the first M. baccata genome assembly, which may be useful for exploring genetic variations in diverse apple germplasm, and for facilitating marker-assisted breeding of new apple cultivars exhibiting resistance to disease and cold stress.
PMID: 31126974
3 Biotech , IF:1.798 , 2019 Jul , V9 (7) : P254 doi: 10.1007/s13205-019-1787-4
Knockout of OsPRP1, a gene encoding proline-rich protein, confers enhanced cold sensitivity in rice (Oryza sativa L.) at the seedling stage.
College of Agriculture, State Key Laboratory for Conservation and Utilization of Subtropical Agro-Bioresources, Guangxi University, Nanning, 530004 China.0000 0001 2254 5798grid.256609.e
Proline-rich proteins (PRPs) play multiple physiological and biochemical roles in plant growth and stress response. In this study, we reported that the knockout of OsPRP1 induced cold sensitivity in rice. Mutant plants were generated by CRISPR/Cas9 technology to investigate the role of OsPRP1 in cold stress and 26 mutant plants were obtained in T0 generation with the mutation rate of 85% including 15% bi-allelic, 53.3% homozygous, and 16.7% heterozygous and 16 T-DNA-free lines in T1 generation. The conserved amino acid sequence was changed and the expression level of OsPRP1 was reduced in mutant plants. The OsPRP1 mutant plants displayed more sensitivity to cold stress and showed low survival rate with decreased root biomass than wild-type (WT) and homozygous mutant line with large fragment deletion was more sensitive to low temperature. Mutant lines accumulated less antioxidant enzyme activity and lower levels of proline, chlorophyll, abscisic acid (ABA), and ascorbic acid (AsA) content relative to WT under low-temperature stress. The changes of antioxidant enzymes were examined in the leaves and roots with exogenous salicylic acid (SA) treatment which resulted in increased activity of superoxide dismutase (SOD), peroxidase (POD), and catalase (CAT) under cold stress, while enzyme antioxidant activity was lower in untreated seedlings which showed that exogenous SA pretreatment could alleviate the low-temperature stress in rice. Furthermore, the expression of three genes encoding antioxidant enzyme activities (SOD4, POX1, and OsCAT3) was significantly down-regulated in the mutant lines as compared to WT. These results suggested that OsPRP1 enhances cold tolerance by modulating antioxidants and maintaining cross talk through signaling pathways. Therefore, OsPRP1 gene could be exploited for improving cold tolerance in rice and CRISPR/Cas9 technology is helpful to study the function of a gene by analyzing the phenotypes of knockout mutants generated.
PMID: 31192079
Genes Genomics , IF:1.188 , 2019 Jul , V41 (7) : P849-861 doi: 10.1007/s13258-019-00797-8
Transcriptome-wide identification of miRNA targets and a TAS3-homologous gene in Populus by degradome sequencing.
National Engineering Laboratory for Tree Breeding, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing, 100083, People's Republic of China.; Key Laboratory of Genetics and Breeding in Forest Trees and Ornamental Plants, Ministry of Education, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing, 100083, People's Republic of China.; College of Biological Sciences and Biotechnology, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing, 100083, People's Republic of China.; National Engineering Laboratory for Tree Breeding, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing, 100083, People's Republic of China. ywwang@bjfu.edu.cn.; Key Laboratory of Genetics and Breeding in Forest Trees and Ornamental Plants, Ministry of Education, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing, 100083, People's Republic of China. ywwang@bjfu.edu.cn.; College of Biological Sciences and Biotechnology, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing, 100083, People's Republic of China. ywwang@bjfu.edu.cn.
BACKGROUND: Degradome sequencing has been applied to identify miRNA-directed mRNA cleavage and understand the biological function of miRNAs and their target genes in plants defense to stress. miRNAs involved in the response to cold stress have been identified in Populus, however, there are few reports about the validated targets of miRNAs in Populus under cold stress. OBJECTIVES: The primary objective of this investigation was to globally identify and validate the targets of the miRNAs and regulatory components in Populus under cold stress. METHODS: Populus plantlets grown in vitro were treated with cold (4 degrees C for 8 h) and total RNA was extracted using Trizol reagent. Approximately 200 microg total RNA was used for the construction of the degradome library, and degradome sequencing was conducted on an Illumina HiSeq 2000. The sequences were mapped to Populus genome using SOAP 2.0 and then were collected for degradome analysis. Additionally, trans-acting siRNA sequences from transacting siRNA gene 3 sequences and mature miRNAs cleaved from precursor miRNAs of Populus were analyzed. 5' RNA ligase-mediated-RACE (5'-RACE) were further conducted. RESULTS: 80 genes were experimentally determined to be the target of 51 unique miRNAs, including three down-regulated miRNAs (pto-miR156k, pto-miR169i-m, and pto-miR394a-5p/b-5p) and two up-regulated miRNAs (pto-miR167a-d and pto-miR167f/g). The specificity and diversity of cleavage sites of miRNA targets were validated through 5'-RACE experiment and the results were similar with that of degradome sequencing, further supporting the empirical cleavage of miRNAs on targets in vivo in Populus. Interestingly, the TAS-homologous gene pto-TAS3 (EF146176.1) was identified and 11 potential ta-siRNAs [D1(+)-D11(+)] and their possible biogenesis sites within the pto-TAS3 transcript sequence were predicted in Populus. In addition, the biosynthesis of miRNA from precursor miRNA (pre-miRNA) was also validated through the detection of a total of 17 pre-miRNAs. CONCLUSION: Our investigation expands the application of degradome sequencing for evaluating miRNA regulatory elements and evidence of the miRNA synthesis process, and provides empirical evidence of bona fide cleavage of target genes by miRNAs in Populus, which might be used for the research of miRNA-mediated regulation mechanism and molecular improvement of resistance to cold stress.
PMID: 30912003
Dokl Biochem Biophys , IF:0.672 , 2019 Jul , V487 (1) : P269-271 doi: 10.1134/S1607672919040069
Ethylene-Insensitive Arabidopsis Mutants etr1-1 and ein2-1 Have a Decreased Freezing Tolerance.
Timiryazev Institute of Plant Physiology, Russian Academy of Sciences, ul. Botanicheskaya 35, 127276, Moscow, Russia. vnpopov@mail.ru.; Timiryazev Institute of Plant Physiology, Russian Academy of Sciences, ul. Botanicheskaya 35, 127276, Moscow, Russia.
The freezing tolerance of Arabidopsis thaliana (L.) Heynh. was studied in relation to functioning of the ethylene signaling pathway. Constitutive freezing tolerance was compared in wild-type plants (ecotype Col-0) and ethylene-insensitive mutants etr1-1 and ein2-1. For the first time it was established that the ethylene-insensitive mutants had a 25-30% lower net photosynthesis rate, a decreased content of soluble sugars, and, as a result, a lower freezing tolerance. Our work provides evidence that the perception and transduction of ethylene signal are necessary for constitutive tolerance of Arabidopsis to low temperature.
PMID: 31559595