Nucleic Acids Res , IF:16.971 , 2022 Jun doi: 10.1093/nar/gkac501
AtNusG, a chloroplast nucleoid protein of bacterial origin linking chloroplast transcriptional and translational machineries, is required for proper chloroplast gene expression in Arabidopsis thaliana.
Shanghai Key Laboratory of Plant Molecular Sciences, College of Life Sciences, Shanghai Normal University, Shanghai 200234, China.; Key Laboratory of Photobiology, Institute of Botany, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100093, China.; School of Life Sciences, Henan University, Kaifeng Henan 475004, China.
In Escherichia coli, transcription-translation coupling is mediated by NusG. Although chloroplasts are descendants of endosymbiotic prokaryotes, the mechanism underlying this coupling in chloroplasts remains unclear. Here, we report transcription-translation coupling through AtNusG in chloroplasts. AtNusG is localized in chloroplast nucleoids and is closely associated with the chloroplast PEP complex by interacting with its essential component PAP9. It also comigrates with chloroplast ribosomes and interacts with their two components PRPS5 (uS5c) and PRPS10 (uS10c). These data suggest that the transcription and translation machineries are coupled in chloroplasts. In the atnusg mutant, the accumulation of chloroplast-encoded photosynthetic gene transcripts, such as psbA, psbB, psbC and psbD, was not obviously changed, but that of their proteins was clearly decreased. Chloroplast polysomic analysis indicated that the decrease in these proteins was due to the reduced efficiency of their translation in this mutant, leading to reduced photosynthetic efficiency and enhanced sensitivity to cold stress. These data indicate that AtNusG-mediated coupling between transcription and translation in chloroplasts ensures the rapid establishment of photosynthetic capacity for plant growth and the response to environmental changes. Therefore, our study reveals a conserved mechanism of transcription-translation coupling between chloroplasts and E. coli, which perhaps represents a regulatory mechanism of chloroplast gene expression. This study provides insights into the underlying mechanisms of chloroplast gene expression in higher plants.
PMID: 35736138
Sci Adv , IF:14.136 , 2022 Jul , V8 (26) : Peabn7901 doi: 10.1126/sciadv.abn7901
CPK28-NLP7 module integrates cold-induced Ca(2+) signal and transcriptional reprogramming in Arabidopsis.
State Key Laboratory of Plant Physiology and Biochemistry, College of Biological Sciences, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China.; School of Life Science, Institute of Life Science and Green Development, Hebei University, Baoding, Hebei 071002, China.
Exposure to cold triggers a spike in cytosolic calcium (Ca(2+)) that often leads to transcriptional reprogramming in plants. However, how this Ca(2+) signal is perceived and relayed to the downstream cold signaling pathway remains unknown. Here, we show that the CALCIUM-DEPENDENT PROTEIN KINASE 28 (CPK28) initiates a phosphorylation cascade to specify transcriptional reprogramming downstream of cold-induced Ca(2+) signal. Plasma membrane (PM)-localized CPK28 is activated rapidly upon cold shock within 10 seconds in a Ca(2+)-dependent manner. CPK28 then phosphorylates and promotes the nuclear translocation of NIN-LIKE PROTEIN 7 (NLP7), a transcription factor that specifies the transcriptional reprogramming of cold-responsive gene sets in response to Ca(2+), thereby positively regulating plant response to cold stress. This study elucidates a previously unidentified mechanism by which the CPK28-NLP7 regulatory module integrates cold-evoked Ca(2+) signal and transcriptome and thus uncovers a key strategy for the rapid perception and transduction of cold signals from the PM to the nucleus.
PMID: 35767615
Dev Cell , IF:12.27 , 2022 Jul doi: 10.1016/j.devcel.2022.06.012
Sulfenylation of ENOLASE2 facilitates H2O2-conferred freezing tolerance in Arabidopsis.
State Key Laboratory of Crop Stress Adaptation and Improvement, State Key Laboratory of Cotton Biology, School of Life Sciences, Key Laboratory of Plant Stress Biology, College of Agriculture, Henan University, Kaifeng 475004, China. Electronic address: liuwencheng@henu.edu.cn.; Key Laboratory of Biotechnology of Salt Tolerant Crops of Hainan Province, Hainan Key Laboratory for Sustainable Utilization of Tropical Bioresources (Provincial Ministry Building State Key Laboratory Breeding Base), College of Tropical Crops, Hainan University, Haikou, Hainan 570228, China.; Key Laboratory of Biotechnology of Salt Tolerant Crops of Hainan Province, Hainan Key Laboratory for Sustainable Utilization of Tropical Bioresources (Provincial Ministry Building State Key Laboratory Breeding Base), College of Tropical Crops, Hainan University, Haikou, Hainan 570228, China; Sanya Nanfan Research Institute of Hainan University, Hainan Yazhou Bay Seed Laboratory, Sanya, Hainan 572025, China.; State Key Laboratory of Hybrid Rice, College of Life Sciences, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, China.; Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Marine Pharmaceutical Compound Screening, Jiangsu Ocean University, Lianyungang 222005, China.; State Key Laboratory of Crop Stress Adaptation and Improvement, State Key Laboratory of Cotton Biology, School of Life Sciences, Key Laboratory of Plant Stress Biology, College of Agriculture, Henan University, Kaifeng 475004, China.; Key Laboratory of Biotechnology of Salt Tolerant Crops of Hainan Province, Hainan Key Laboratory for Sustainable Utilization of Tropical Bioresources (Provincial Ministry Building State Key Laboratory Breeding Base), College of Tropical Crops, Hainan University, Haikou, Hainan 570228, China; Sanya Nanfan Research Institute of Hainan University, Hainan Yazhou Bay Seed Laboratory, Sanya, Hainan 572025, China. Electronic address: yuanhongmei@hainanu.edu.cn.
H2O2 affects the expression of genes that are involved in plant responses to diverse environmental stresses; however, the underlying mechanisms remain elusive. Here, we demonstrate that H2O2 enhances plant freezing tolerance through its effect on a protein product of low expression of osmotically responsive genes2 (LOS2). LOS2 is translated into a major product, cytosolic enolase2 (ENO2), and sometimes an alternative product, the transcription repressor c-Myc-binding protein (MBP-1). ENO2, but not MBP-1, promotes cold tolerance by binding the promoter of C-repeat/DRE binding factor1 (CBF1), a central transcription factor in plant cold signaling, thus activating its expression. Overexpression of CBF1 restores freezing sensitivity of a LOS2 loss-of-function mutant. Furthermore, cold-induced H2O2 increases nuclear import and transcriptional binding activity of ENO2 by sulfenylating cysteine 408 and thereby promotes its oligomerization. Collectively, our results illustrate how H2O2 activates plant cold responses by sulfenylating ENO2 and promoting its oligomerization, leading to enhanced nuclear translocation and transcriptional activation of CBF1.
PMID: 35809562
Plant Cell , IF:11.277 , 2022 Jul , V34 (8) : P2833-2851 doi: 10.1093/plcell/koac137
The transcription factor bZIP68 negatively regulates cold tolerance in maize.
State Key Laboratory of Plant Physiology and Biochemistry, College of Biological Sciences, Center for Crop Functional Genomics and Molecular Breeding, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China.; State Key Laboratory of Plant Physiology and Biochemistry, National Maize Improvement Center, Center for Crop Functional Genomics and Molecular Breeding, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China.
Maize (Zea mays) originated in tropical areas and is thus susceptible to low temperatures, which pose a major threat to maize production. Our understanding of the molecular basis of cold tolerance in maize is limited. Here, we identified bZIP68, a basic leucine zipper (bZIP) transcription factor, as a negative regulator of cold tolerance in maize. Transcriptome analysis revealed that bZIP68 represses the cold-induced expression of DREB1 transcription factor genes. The stability and transcriptional activity of bZIP68 are controlled by its phosphorylation at the conserved Ser250 residue under cold stress. Furthermore, we demonstrated that the bZIP68 locus was a target of selection during early domestication. A 358-bp insertion/deletion (Indel-972) polymorphism in the bZIP68 promoter has a significant effect on the differential expression of bZIP68 between maize and its wild ancestor teosinte. This study thus uncovers an evolutionary cis-regulatory variant that could be used to improve cold tolerance in maize.
PMID: 35543494
Cell Discov , IF:10.849 , 2022 Jul , V8 (1) : P71 doi: 10.1038/s41421-022-00413-2
Chilling-induced phosphorylation of IPA1 by OsSAPK6 activates chilling tolerance responses in rice.
State Key Laboratory of Plant Genomics and National Center for Plant Gene Research, Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Innovation Academy for Seed Design, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.; State Key Laboratory of Molecular Developmental Biology, Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Innovation Academy for Seed Design, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.; State Key Laboratory of Plant Genomics and National Center for Plant Gene Research, Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Innovation Academy for Seed Design, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China. hyu@genetics.ac.cn.; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China. hyu@genetics.ac.cn.
Chilling is a major abiotic stress harming rice development and productivity. The C-REPEAT BINDING FACTOR (CBF)-dependent transcriptional regulatory pathway plays a central role in cold stress and acclimation in Arabidopsis. In rice, several genes have been reported in conferring chilling tolerance, however, the chilling signaling in rice remains largely unknown. Here, we report the chilling-induced OSMOTIC STRESS/ABA-ACTIVATED PROTEIN KINASE 6 (OsSAPK6)-IDEAL PLANT ARCHITECTURE 1 (IPA1)-OsCBF3 signal pathway in rice. Under chilling stress, OsSAPK6 could phosphorylate IPA1 and increase its stability. In turn, IPA1 could directly bind to the GTAC motif on the OsCBF3 promoter to elevate its expression. Genetic evidence showed that OsSAPK6, IPA1 and OsCBF3 were all positive regulators of rice chilling tolerance. The function of OsSAPK6 in chilling tolerance depended on IPA1, and overexpression of OsCBF3 could rescue the chilling-sensitive phenotype of ipa1 loss-of-function mutant. Moreover, the natural gain-of-function allele ipa1-2D could simultaneously enhance seedling chilling tolerance and increase grain yield. Taken together, our results revealed a chilling-induced OsSAPK6-IPA1-OsCBF signal cascade in rice, which shed new lights on chilling stress-tolerant rice breeding.
PMID: 35882853
New Phytol , IF:10.151 , 2022 Jul doi: 10.1111/nph.18403
A single nucleotide polymorphism in WRKY33 promoter is associated with the cold sensitivity in cultivated tomato.
Department of Horticulture, Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory of Horticultural Plant Integrative Biology, Zhejiang University, Yuhangtang Road 866, Hangzhou, 310058, China.; Hainan Institute, Zhejiang University, Sanya, 572000, China.; Agricultural Experiment Station, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310058, China.; Cyprus University of Technology, Department of Agricultural Sciences Biotechnology and Food Science, Lemesos, 999058, Cyprus.; Key Laboratory of Horticultural Plants Growth, Development and Quality Improvement, Agricultural Ministry of China, Yuhangtang Road 866, Hangzhou, 310058, China.; Shandong (Linyi) Institute of Modern Agriculture, Zhejiang University, Linyi, 276000, China.
Natural variations in cis-regulatory regions often affect crop phenotypes by altering gene expression. However, the mechanism of how promoter mutations affect gene expression and crop stress tolerance is still poorly understood.In this study, by analyzing RNA-Seq data and RT-qPCR validation in the cultivated tomato and its wild relatives, we reveal that the transcripts of WRKY33 are almost unchanged in cold-sensitive cultivated tomato Solanum lycopersicum L. cv Ailsa Craig (AC), but are significantly induced in cold-tolerant wild tomato relatives Solanum habrochaites LA1777 and Solanum pennellii LA0716 under cold stress.Overexpression of SlWRKY33 or ShWRKY33 both positively regulate cold tolerance in tomato. Variant of the critical W-box in SlWRKY33 promoter results in the loss of self-transcription function of SlWRKY33 under cold stress. Analysis integrating RNA-seq and ChIP-seq data reveals that SlWRKY33 directly targets and induces multiple kinases, transcription factors and molecular chaperone genes, such as CDPK11, MYBS3 and BAG6, thus enhancing cold tolerance. In addition, heat- and Botrytis-induced WRKY33s expression in both wild and cultivated tomatoes are independent of the critical W-box variation.Our findings suggest nucleotide polymorphism in cis-regulatory regions is crucial for different cold sensitivity between cultivated and wild tomato plants.
PMID: 35892173
New Phytol , IF:10.151 , 2022 Jun doi: 10.1111/nph.18304
Two AT-Hook proteins regulate A/NINV7 expression to modulate sucrose catabolism for cold tolerance in Poncirus trifoliata.
Key Laboratory of Horticultural Plant Biology (MOE), College of Horticulture and Forestry Science, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070, China.; Department of Horticulture, Faculty of Agriculture, Tishreen University, Lattakia, Syria.; Hubei Hongshan Laboratory, Wuhan, 430070, China.
Invertase (INV)-mediated sucrose (Suc) hydrolysis, leading to the irreversible production of glucose (Glc) and fructose (Frc), plays an essential role in abiotic stress tolerance of plants. However, the regulatory network associated with the Suc catabolism in response to cold environment remains largely elusive. Herein, the cold-induced alkaline/neutral INV gene PtrA/NINV7 of trifoliate orange (Poncirus trifoliata (L.) Raf.) was shown to function in cold tolerance via mediating the Suc hydrolysis. Meanwhile, a nuclear matrix-associated region containing A/T-rich sequences within its promoter was indispensable for the cold induction of PtrA/NINV7. Two AT-Hook Motif Containing Nuclear Localized (AHL) proteins, PtrAHL14 and PtrAHL17, were identified as upstream transcriptional activators of PtrA/NINV7 by interacting with the A/T-rich motifs. PtrAHL14 and PtrAHL17 function positively in the cold tolerance by modulating PtrA/NINV7-mediated Suc catabolism. Furthermore, both PtrAHL14 and PtrAHL17 could form homo- and heterodimers between each other, and interacted with two histone acetyltransferases (HATs), GCN5 and TAF1, leading to elevated histone3 acetylation level under the cold stress. Taken together, our findings unraveled a new cold-responsive signaling module (AHL14/17-HATs-A/NINV7) for orchestration of Suc catabolism and cold tolerance, which shed light on the molecular mechanisms underlying Suc catabolism catalyzed by A/NINVs under cold stress.
PMID: 35695205
Crit Rev Biotechnol , IF:8.429 , 2022 Jul : P1-18 doi: 10.1080/07388551.2022.2053056
Cold stress regulates accumulation of flavonoids and terpenoids in plants by phytohormone, transcription process, functional enzyme, and epigenetics.
Wenzhou Safety (Emergency) Institute of Tianjin University, Wenzhou, China.; School of Pharmaceutical Science and Technology, Tianjin University, Tianjin, China.; Tianjin Pharmaceutical Research Institute, Tianjin, China.; National Resource Center for Chinese Meteria Medica, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Beijing, China.
Plants make different defense mechanisms in response to different environmental stresses. One common way is to produce secondary metabolites. Temperature is the main environmental factor that regulates plant secondary metabolites, especially flavonoids and terpenoids. Stress caused by temperature decreasing to 4-10 degrees C is conducive to the accumulation of flavonoids and terpenoids. However, the accumulation mechanism under cold stress still lacks a systematic explanation. In this review, we summarize three aspects of cold stress promoting the accumulation of flavonoids and terpenoids in plants, that is, by affecting (1) the content of endogenous plant hormones, especially jasmonic acid and abscisic acid; (2) the expression level and activity of important transcription factors, such as bHLH and MYB families. This aspect also includes post-translational modification of transcription factors caused by cold stress; (3) key enzyme genes expression and activity in the biosynthesis pathway, in addition, the rate-limiting enzyme and glycosyltransferases genes are responsive to cold stress. The systematic understanding of cold stress regulates flavonoids, and terpenoids will contribute to the future research of genetic engineering breeding, metabolism regulation, glycosyltransferases mining, and plant synthetic biology.
PMID: 35848841
Plant Physiol , IF:8.34 , 2022 Jun doi: 10.1093/plphys/kiac267
A natural antisense RNA improves chrysanthemum cold tolerance by regulating the transcription factor DgTCP1.
Department of Ornamental Horticulture, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu, Sichuan 611130, People's Republic of China.
Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are widely involved in the regulation of plant growth and development, but their mechanism of action in response to cold stress in plants remains unclear. Here, we found an lncRNA transcribed from the antisense strand of DgTCP1 (class I Teosinte branched1/Cycloidea/Proliferating [TCP] transcription factor) of chrysanthemum (Chrysanthemum morifolium Ramat.), named DglncTCP1. During the response of chrysanthemum to cold stress, overexpression of DgTCP1 improved the cold tolerance of chrysanthemum, while the DgTCP1 editing line (dgtcp1) showed decreased tolerance to cold stress. Overexpression of DglncTCP1 also increased the cold tolerance of chrysanthemum, while the DglncTCP1 amiRNA lines (DglncTCP1 amiR-18/38) also showed decreased tolerance to cold stress. Additionally, the overexpression of DglncTCP1 upregulated the expression of DgTCP1. This indicated that DglncTCP1 may play a cis-regulatory role in the regulatory process of DgTCP1 in cold tolerance. DglncTCP1 acts as a scaffold to recruit the histone modification protein DgATX (ARABIDOPSIS TRITHORAX from chrysanthemum) to DgTCP1 to enhance H3K4me3 levels, thereby activating DgTCP1 expression. Moreover, DgTCP1 can directly target DgPOD (peroxidase gene from chrysanthemum) to promote its expression and reduce reactive oxygen species accumulation, thereby improving the cold tolerance of chrysanthemum. In conclusion, these results suggest that natural antisense lncRNA plays a key role in improving the cold tolerance of chrysanthemum.
PMID: 35728057
Plant Cell Environ , IF:7.228 , 2022 Jun doi: 10.1111/pce.14386
Modulation of plant development and chilling stress responses by alternative splicing events under control of the spliceosome protein SmEb in Arabidopsis.
School of Life Sciences, Anhui Agricultural University, Hefei, Anhui, China.; Shanghai Center for Plant Stress Biology and Center for Excellence in Molecular Plant Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China.; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China.; Department of Plant Science and Landscape Architecture, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, USA.; State Key Laboratory of Crop Stress Biology for Arid Areas and College of Horticulture, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, Shaanxi, China.
Cold stress resulting from chilling and freezing temperatures substantially inhibits plant growth and reduces crop production worldwide. Tremendous research efforts have been focused on elucidating the molecular mechanisms of freezing tolerance in plants. However, little is known about the molecular nature of chilling stress responses in plants. Here we found that two allelic mutants in a spliceosome component gene SmEb (smeb-1 and smeb-2) are defective in development and responses to chilling stress. RNA-seq analysis revealed that SmEb controls the splicing of many pre-messenger RNAs (mRNAs) under chilling stress. Our results suggest that SmEb is important to maintain proper ratio of the two COP1 splicing variants (COP1a/COP1b) to fine tune the level of HY5. In addition, the transcription factor BES1 shows a dramatic defect in pre-mRNA splicing in the smeb mutants. Ectopic expression of the two BES1 splicing variants enhances the chilling sensitivity of the smeb-1 mutant. Furthermore, biochemical and genetic analysis showed that CBFs act as negative upstream regulators of SmEb by directly suppressing its transcription. Together, our results demonstrate that proper alternative splicing of pre-mRNAs controlled by the spliceosome component SmEb is critical for plant development and chilling stress responses.
PMID: 35770732
Plant Cell Environ , IF:7.228 , 2022 Jul , V45 (7) : P2093-2108 doi: 10.1111/pce.14322
Photoprotection conferring plant tolerance to freezing stress through rescuing photosystem in evergreen Rhododendron.
Genomics and Genetic Engineering Laboratory of Ornamental Plants, College of Agriculture and Biotechnology, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, P.R. China.
Light stress is one of the important stresses for winter survival in evergreens, especially for plants with broad leaves, like evergreen rhododendrons. Photoprotection has been shown to upregulate dramatically in rhododendrons during winter, but whether it directly contributes to enhancing the freezing tolerance is still unknown. In this study, we found that the expression and circadian rhythm of an early light-induced protein (ELIP)-RhELIP3-which exerts photoprotection in Rhododendron 'Elsie Lee', could be impacted by both photoperiod and low temperature, with low temperature being the predominant inducer. Arabidopsis overexpressing RhELIP3 displayed significantly stronger freezing tolerance and better photosystem II function after a 3-day recovery from freezing treatment. Moreover, RhHY5 binds with the RhELIP3 promoter to activate its expression. Arabidopsis overexpressing RhHY5 exhibited stronger freezing tolerance and better photosystem II function. AtELIP1 and AtELIP2 were significantly induced in RhHY5-overexpressed Arabidopsis at low temperatures. We also discovered that RhBBX24 binds directly to RhELIP3 promoter and suppresses its expression. RhBBX24 can also interact with RhHY5 and inhibit the interaction of RhHY5-RhELIP3. RhELIP3, RhHY5, and RhBBX24 exhibited similar circadian rhythms under low temperature with short period. Overall, our investigation highlights that photoprotection is involved in improving the freezing tolerance of evergreen rhododendrons.
PMID: 35357711
J Exp Bot , IF:6.992 , 2022 Jun doi: 10.1093/jxb/erac274
The C2H2-type zinc finger protein PhZFP1 regulates cold stress tolerance by modulating galactinol synthesis in Petunia hybrida.
Key Laboratory of Horticultural Plant Biology, Ministry of Education, College of Horticulture and Forestry Sciences, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, China.; Key Laboratory of Huazhong Urban Agriculture, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, College of Horticulture and Forestry Sciences, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, China.; National R&D Center for Citrus Preservation, College of Horticulture and Forestry Sciences, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, China.; Hubei Hongshan Laboratory, Wuhan, China.
The C2H2 zinc finger proteins (ZFPs) play essential roles in regulating cold stress responses. Similarly, raffinose accumulation contributes to freezing stress tolerance. However, the relationship between C2H2 functions and raffinose synthesis in cold tolerance remain uncertain. Here, we report the characterization of the cold-induced C2H2-type zinc finger protein PhZFP1 in Petunia hybrida. PhZFP1 was found to be predominantly localized in the nucleus. Overexpression of PhZFP1 conferred enhanced cold tolerance in transgenic petunia lines. In contrast, RNAi mediated suppression of PhZFP1 led to increased cold susceptibility. PhZFP1 regulated the expression of a range of abiotic stress responsive-genes including genes encoding proteins involved in reactive oxygen species (ROS) scavenging and raffinose metabolism. The accumulation of galactinol and raffinose, and the levels of PhGolS1-1 transcripts were significantly increased in PhZFP1-overexpressing plants and decreased in PhZFP1- RNAi plants under cold stress. Moreover, the galactinol synthase (GolS)-encoding gene, PhGolS1-1 was identified as a direct target of PhZFP1. Taken together, these results demonstrate that PhZFP1 functions in cold stress tolerance by modulation of galactinol synthesis via regulation of PhGolS1-1. This study also provides new insights into the mechanisms underlying C2H2 zinc finger protein-mediated cold stress tolerance, and has identified a candidate gene for improving cold stress tolerance.
PMID: 35726094
Plant J , IF:6.417 , 2022 Jun doi: 10.1111/tpj.15872
mRNA N(6) -methyladenosine is critical for cold tolerance in Arabidopsis.
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK, 74078, USA.; Department of Biology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, USA.; Dale Bumpers National Rice Research Center, United States Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Services, Stuttgart, AR, 72160, USA.
Plants respond to low temperatures by altering the mRNA abundance of thousands of genes contributing to numerous physiological and metabolic processes that allow them to adapt. At the post-transcriptional level, these cold stress-responsive transcripts undergo alternative splicing, microRNA-mediated regulation and alternative polyadenylation, amongst others. Recently, m(6) A, m(5) C and other mRNA modifications that can affect the regulation and stability of RNA were discovered, thus revealing another layer of post-transcriptional regulation that plays an important role in modulating gene expression. The importance of m(6) A in plant growth and development has been appreciated, although its significance under stress conditions is still underexplored. To assess the role of m(6) A modifications during cold stress responses, methylated RNA immunoprecipitation sequencing was performed in Arabidopsis seedlings esposed to low temperature stress (4 degrees C) for 24 h. This transcriptome-wide m(6) A analysis revealed large-scale shifts in this modification in response to low temperature stress. Because m(6) A is known to affect transcript stability/degradation and translation, we investigated these possibilities. Interestingly, we found that cold-enriched m(6) A-containing transcripts demonstrated the largest increases in transcript abundance coupled with increased ribosome occupancy under cold stress. The significance of the m(6) A epitranscriptome on plant cold tolerance was further assessed using the mta mutant in which the major m(6) A methyltransferase gene was mutated. Compared to the wild-type, along with the differences in CBFs and COR gene expression levels, the mta mutant exhibited hypersensitivity to cold treatment as determined by primary root growth, biomass, and reactive oxygen species accumulation. Furthermore, and most importantly, both non-acclimated and cold-acclimated mta mutant demonstrated hypersensitivity to freezing tolerance. Taken together, these findings suggest a critical role for the epitranscriptome in cold tolerance of Arabidopsis.
PMID: 35710867
Plant J , IF:6.417 , 2022 Jun doi: 10.1111/tpj.15870
Cold-adaptive evolution at the reproductive stage in Geng/japonica subspecies reveals the role of OsMAPK3 and OsLEA9.
State Key Laboratory of Agrobiotechnology/Beijing Key Laboratory of Crop Genetic Improvement, College of Agronomy and Biotechnology, China Agricultural University, Beijing, 100193, China.
Cold stress at the reproductive stage severely affects the production and geographic distribution of rice. The Geng/japonica subpopulation gradually developed stronger cold adaptation than the Xian/indica subpopulation during the long-term domestication of cultivated rice. However, the evolutionary path and natural alleles underlying the cold adaptability of intra-Geng subspecies remain largely unknown. Here, we identified MITOGEN-ACTIVATED PROTEIN KINASE 3 (OsMAPK3) and LATE EMBRYOGENESIS ABUNDANT PROTEIN 9 (OsLEA9) as two important regulators for the cold adaptation of Geng subspecies from a combination of transcriptome analysis and genome-wide association study. Transgenic validation showed that OsMAPK3 and OsLEA9 confer cold tolerance at the reproductive stage. Selection and evolution analysis suggested that the Geng version of OsMAPK3 (OsMAPK3(Geng) ) directly evolved from Chinese Oryza rufipogon III and was largely retained in high-latitude and high-altitude regions with low temperatures during domestication. Later, the functional nucleotide polymorphism (FNP-776) in the Kunmingxiaobaigu and Lijiangxiaoheigu version of the OsLEA9 (OsLEA9(KL) ) promoter originated from novel variation of intra-Geng was selected and predominantly retained in temperate Geng to improve the adaptation of Geng together with OsMAPK3(Geng) to colder climatic conditions in high-latitude areas. Breeding potential analysis suggested that pyramiding of OsMAPK3(Geng) and OsLEA9(KL) enhanced the cold tolerance of Geng and promotes the expansion of cultivated rice to colder regions. This study not only highlights the evolutionary path taken by the cold-adaptive differentiation of intra-Geng, but also provides new genetic resources for rice molecular breeding in low-temperature areas.
PMID: 35706359
Plant J , IF:6.417 , 2022 Jul , V111 (2) : P440-456 doi: 10.1111/tpj.15807
The miR164a-NAM3 module confers cold tolerance by inducing ethylene production in tomato.
Department of Horticulture, Zijingang Campus, Zhejiang University, 866 Yuhangtang Road, Hangzhou, 310058, China.; Key Laboratory of Horticultural Plants Growth and Development, Agricultural Ministry of China, Yuhangtang Road 866, Hangzhou, 310058, China.
Because of a high sensitivity to cold, both the yield and quality of tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) are severely restricted by cold stress. The NAC transcription factor (TF) family has been characterized as an important player in plant growth, development, and the stress response, but the role of NAC TFs in cold stress and their interaction with other post-transcriptional regulators such as microRNAs in cold tolerance remains elusive. Here, we demonstrated that SlNAM3, the predicted target of Sl-miR164a/b-5p, improved cold tolerance as indicated by a higher maximum quantum efficiency of photosystem II (Fv/Fm), lower relative electrolyte leakage, and less wilting in SlNAM3-overexpression plants compared to wild-type. Further genetic and molecular confirmation revealed that Sl-miR164a/b-5p functioned upstream of SlNAM3 by inhibiting the expression of the latter, thus playing a negative role in cold tolerance. Interestingly, this role is partially mediated by an ethylene-dependent pathway because either Sl-miR164a/b-5p silencing or SlNAM3 overexpression improved cold tolerance in the transgenic lines by promoting ethylene production. Moreover, silencing of the ethylene synthesis genes, SlACS1A, SlACS1B, SlACO1, and SlACO4, resulted in a significant decrease in cold tolerance. Further experiments demonstrated that NAM3 activates SlACS1A, SlACS1B, SlACO1, and SlACO4 transcription by directly binding to their promoters. Taken together, the present study identified the miR164a-NAM3 module conferring cold tolerance in tomato plants via the direct regulation of SlACS1A, SlACS1B, SlACO1, and SlACO4 expression to induce ethylene synthesis.
PMID: 35569132
Plant J , IF:6.417 , 2022 Jul , V111 (1) : P85-102 doi: 10.1111/tpj.15780
Heat shock-induced cold acclimation in cucumber through CsHSFA1d-activated JA biosynthesis and signaling.
College of Horticulture, China Agricultural University, Beijing, 100193, China.; Institute of Economic Crops, Hubei Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Wuhan, Hubei Province, 430064, China.; Shandong Huasheng Agriculture Co. Ltd, Qingzhou, Shandong, 262500, China.; School of Agriculture, Virginia State University, Petersburg, VA, USA.
Cucumber (Cucumis sativus) originated in tropical areas and is very sensitive to low temperatures. Cold acclimation is a universal strategy that improves plant resistance to cold stress. In this study, we report that heat shock induces cold acclimation in cucumber seedlings, via a process involving the heat-shock transcription factor HSFA1d. CsHSFA1d expression was improved by both heat shock and cold treatment. Moreover, CsHSFA1d transcripts accumulated more under cold treatment after a heat-shock pre-treatment than with either heat shock or cold treatment alone. After exposure to cold, cucumber lines overexpressing CsHSFA1d displayed stronger tolerance for cold stress than the wild type, whereas CsHSFA1d knockdown lines obtained by RNA interference were more sensitive to cold stress. Furthermore, both the overexpression of CsHSFA1d and heat-shock pre-treatment increased the endogenous jasmonic acid (JA) content in cucumber seedlings after cold treatment. Exogenous application of JA rescued the cold-sensitive phenotype of CsHSFA1d knockdown lines, underscoring that JA biosynthesis is key for CsHSFA1d-mediated cold tolerance. Higher JA content is likely to lead to the degradation of CsJAZ5, a repressor protein of the JA pathway. We also established that CsJAZ5 interacts with CsICE1. JA-induced degradation of CsJAZ5 would be expected to release CsICE1, which would then activate the ICE-CBF-COR pathway. After cold treatment, the relative expression levels of ICE-CBF-COR signaling pathway genes, such as CsICE1, CsCBF1, CsCBF2 and CsCOR1, in CsHSFA1d overexpression lines were significantly higher than in the wild type and knockdown lines. Taken together, our results help to reveal the mechanism underlying heat shock-induced cold acclimation in cucumber.
PMID: 35436390
Int J Mol Sci , IF:5.923 , 2022 Jun , V23 (13) doi: 10.3390/ijms23137141
Changes of Sensory Quality, Flavor-Related Metabolites and Gene Expression in Peach Fruit Treated by Controlled Atmosphere (CA) under Cold Storage.
Crop Breeding & Cultivation Research Institute, Shanghai Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Shanghai 201403, China.; Laboratory of Fruit Quality Biology Zhejiang Provincial Key/Laboratory of Horticultural Plant Integrative Biology, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China.
Controlled atmosphere (CA) has been used to alleviate chilling injury (CI) of horticultural crops caused by cold storage. However, the effects of CA treatment on peach fruit sensory quality and flavor-related chemicals suffering from CI remain largely unknown. Here, we stored peach fruit under CA with 5% O2 and 10% CO2 at 0 degrees C up to 28 d followed by a subsequent 3 d shelf-life at 20 degrees C (28S3). CA significantly reduced flesh browning and improved sensory quality at 28S3. Though total volatiles declined during extended cold storage, CA accumulated higher content of volatile esters and lactones than control at 28S3. A total of 14 volatiles were positively correlated with consumer acceptability, mainly including three C6 compounds, three esters and four lactones derived from the fatty acid lipoxygenase (LOX) pathway. Correspondingly, the expression levels of genes including PpLOX1, hyperoxide lyase PpHPL1 and alcohol acyltransferase PpAAT1 were positively correlated with the change of esters and lactones. CA elevated the sucrose content and the degree of fatty acids unsaturation under cold storage, which gave us clues to clarify the mechanism of resistance to cold stress. The results suggested that CA treatment improved sensory quality by alleviating CI of peach fruits under cold storage.
PMID: 35806145
Int J Mol Sci , IF:5.923 , 2022 Jun , V23 (12) doi: 10.3390/ijms23126683
Integrated Transcriptomic and Metabolomic Analyses of Cold-Tolerant and Cold-Sensitive Pepper Species Reveal Key Genes and Essential Metabolic Pathways Involved in Response to Cold Stress.
Key Laboratory for Quality Regulation of Tropical Horticultural Crops of Hainan Province, College of Horticulture, Hainan University, Haikou 570228, China.; Hainan Yazhou Bay Seed Laboratory, Sanya Nanfan Research Institute of Hainan University, Sanya 572025, China.; Key Laboratory for Sustainable Utilization of Tropical Bioresources of Hainan Province, College of Tropical Crops, Hainan University, Haikou 570228, China.
Cold stress, triggered by particularly low temperatures, is one of the most severe forms of abiotic stress in pepper plants and a major constraint to the global pepper industry, threatening crop production and food security. To acclimatize to extreme conditions, the plant undergoes numerous modifications, including genetic and metabolic modulations. A thorough study of both the genetic and metabolic alterations of plants in response to cold stress is vital to understanding and developing the cold stress resistance mechanism. This study implemented transcriptome and metabolome analyses to evaluate the cold stress response in cold-tolerant and cold-sensitive pepper species. The weighted gene co-expression network revealed three significant modules related to cold stress tolerance in Capsicum pubescens. We identified 17 commonly enriched genes among both species at different time points in 10 different comparisons, including the AP2 transcription factor, LRR receptor-like serine, hypersensitivity-related 4-like protein, and uncharacterized novel.295 and novel.6172 genes. A pathway enrichment analysis indicated that these DEGs were mainly associated with the MAPK signaling pathway, hormone signaling pathway, and primary and secondary metabolism. Additionally, 21 significantly differentially accumulated metabolites (DAMs) were identified in both species after 6 h of cold stress. A transcriptome and metabolome integrated analysis revealed that 54 genes correlated with metabolites enriched in five different pathways. Most genes and metabolites involved in carbohydrate metabolism, the TCA cycle, and flavonoid biosynthesis pathways were upregulated in cold-tolerant plants under cold stress. Together, the results of this study provide a comprehensive gene regulatory and metabolic network in response to cold stress and identified some key genes and metabolic pathways involved in pepper cold tolerance. This study lays a foundation for the functional characterization and development of pepper cultivars with improved cold tolerance.
PMID: 35743127
Int J Mol Sci , IF:5.923 , 2022 Jun , V23 (12) doi: 10.3390/ijms23126493
Integrative Proteome and Phosphoproteome Profiling of Early Cold Response in Maize Seedlings.
College of Agronomy, Hunan Agricultural University, Changsha 410128, China.; State Key Laboratory for Managing Biotic and Chemical Threats to the Quality and Safety of Agro-Products, Institute of Virology and Biotechnology, Zhejiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Hangzhou 310021, China.
Cold limits the growth and yield of maize in temperate regions, but the molecular mechanism of cold adaptation remains largely unexplored in maize. To identify early molecular events during cold shock, maize seedlings were treated under 4 degrees C for 30 min and 2 h, and analyzed at both the proteome and phosphoproteome levels. Over 8500 proteins and 19,300 phosphopeptides were quantified. About 660 and 620 proteins were cold responsive at protein abundance or site-specific phosphorylation levels, but only 65 proteins were shared between them. Functional enrichment analysis of cold-responsive proteins and phosphoproteins revealed that early cold response in maize is associated with photosynthesis light reaction, spliceosome, endocytosis, and defense response, consistent with similar studies in Arabidopsis. Thirty-two photosynthesis proteins were down-regulated at protein levels, and 48 spliceosome proteins were altered at site-specific phosphorylation levels. Thirty-one kinases and 33 transcriptional factors were cold responsive at protein, phosphopeptide, or site-specific phosphorylation levels. Our results showed that maize seedlings respond to cold shock rapidly, at both the proteome and phosphoproteome levels. This study provides a comprehensive landscape at the cold-responsive proteome and phosphoproteome in maize seedlings that can be a significant resource to understand how C4 plants respond to a sudden temperature drop.
PMID: 35742945
Int J Mol Sci , IF:5.923 , 2022 Jun , V23 (12) doi: 10.3390/ijms23126426
Genome-Wide Identification and Analysis of the NF-Y Transcription Factor Family Reveal Its Potential Roles in Salt Stress in Alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.).
School of Grassland Science, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing 100083, China.; Institute of Animal Science, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100193, China.
Nuclear factor Y (NF-Y) is a heterotrimeric transcription factor that plays an important role in various biological processes in plants, such as flowering regulation, drought resistance, and salt stress. However, few in-depth studies investigated the alfalfa NF-Y gene family. In this study, in total, 60 MsNF-Y genes, including 9 MsNF-YAs, 26 MsNF-YBs, and 25 MsNF-YCs, were identified in the alfalfa genome. The genomic locations, gene structures, protein molecular weights, conserved domains, phylogenetic relationships, and gene expression patterns in different tissues and under different stresses (cold stress, drought stress, and salt stress) of these NF-Y genes were analyzed. The illustration of the conserved domains and specific domains of the different subfamilies of the MsNF-Y genes implicates the conservation and diversity of their functions in alfalfa growth, development, and stress resistance. The gene expression analysis showed that 48 MsNF-Y genes (7 MsNF-YAs, 22 MsNF-YBs, and 19 MsNF-YCs) were expressed in all tissues at different expression levels, indicating that these genes have tissue expression specificity and different biological functions. In total, seven, seven, six, and eight MsNF-Y genes responded to cold stress, the ABA treatment, drought stress, and salt stress in alfalfa, respectively. According to the WGCNA, molecular regulatory networks related to salt stress were constructed for MsNF-YB2, MsNF-YB5, MsNF-YB7, MsNF-YB15, MsNF-YC5, and MsNF-YC6. This study could provide valuable information for further elucidating the biological functions of MsNF-Ys and improving salt tolerance and other abiotic stress resistance in alfalfa.
PMID: 35742869
Int J Mol Sci , IF:5.923 , 2022 Jun , V23 (12) doi: 10.3390/ijms23126398
Metabolic Profiling of Terpene Diversity and the Response of Prenylsynthase-Terpene Synthase Genes during Biotic and Abiotic Stresses in Dendrobium catenatum.
Institute of Biopharmaceuticals, Taizhou University, Taizhou 318000, China.; Institute of Biotechnology, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310000, China.; Ministry of Agriculture Key Lab of Molecular Biology of Crop Pathogens and Insects, Hangzhou 310000, China.; Key Laboratory of Biology of Crop Pathogens and Insects of Zhejiang Province, Hangzhou 310000, China.
Dendrobium catenatum is a widely cultivated Chinese orchid herb rich in abundant secondary metabolites, such as terpenes. However, terpene distribution and characterization of terpene biosynthesis-related genes remain unknown in D. catenatum. In this study, metabolic profiling was performed to analyze terpene distribution in the root, stem, leaf, and flower of D. catenatum. A total of 74 terpene compounds were identified and classified. Clustering analysis revealed that terpene compounds exhibited a tissue-specific accumulation, including monoterpenes in the flowers, sesquiterpenes in the stems, and triterpenes in the roots. Transcriptome analysis revealed that the 'terpenoid backbone biosynthesis' pathway was only significantly enriched in root vs. flower. The expression of terpene biosynthesis-related genes was spatiotemporal in the flowers. Prenylsynthase-terpene synthases (PS-TPSs) are the largest and core enzymes for generating terpene diversity. By systematic sequence analysis of six species, 318 PS-TPSs were classified into 10 groups and 51 DcaPS-TPSs were found in eight of them. Eighteen DcaPS-TPSs were regulated by circadian rhythm under drought stress. Most of the DcaPS-TPSs were influenced by cold stress and fungi infection. The cis-element of the majority of the DcaPS-TPS promoters was related to abiotic stress and plant development. Methyl jasmonate levels were significantly associated with DcaTPSs expression and terpene biosynthesis. These results provide insight into further functional investigation of DcaPS-TPSs and the regulation of terpene biosynthesis in Dendrobium.
PMID: 35742843
Int J Mol Sci , IF:5.923 , 2022 Jun , V23 (11) doi: 10.3390/ijms23116334
A Comprehensive Identification and Expression Analysis of VQ Motif-Containing Proteins in Sugarcane (Saccharum spontaneum L.) under Phytohormone Treatment and Cold Stress.
Hunan Key Laboratory of Economic Crops Genetic Improvement and Integrated Utilization, School of Life Science, Hunan University of Science and Technology, Xiangtan 411201, China.; Key Laboratory of Integrated Management of the Pests and Diseases on Horticultural Crops in Hunan Province/Key Laboratory of Ecological Remediation and Safe Utilization of Heavy Metal-Polluted Soils, College of Hunan Province, Xiangtan 411201, China.; College of Agriculture, Yulin Normal University, Yulin 537000, China.; Key Laboratory of Sugarcane Biology and Genetic Breeding, Ministry of Agriculture/National Engineering Research Center for Sugarcane, Ministry of Science and Technology, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou 350002, China.; Crop Research Institute, Hunan Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Changsha 410000, China.
The VQ motif-containing proteins play a vital role in various processes such as growth, resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses and development. However, there is currently no report on the VQ genes in sugarcane (Saccharum spp.). Herein, 78 VQ genes in Saccharum spontaneum were identified and classified into nine subgroups (I-IX) by comparative genomic analyses. Each subgroup had a similar structural and conservative motif. These VQ genes expanded mainly through whole-genome segmental duplication. The cis-regulatory elements (CREs) of the VQ genes were widely involved in stress responses, phytohormone responses and physiological regulation. The RNA-seq data showed that SsVQ gene expression patterns in 10 different samples, including different developmental stages, revealed distinct temporal and spatial patterns. A total of 23 SsVQ genes were expressed in all tissues, whereas 13 SsVQ genes were not expressed in any tissues. Sequence Read Archive (SRA) data showed that the majority of SsVQs responded to cold and drought stress. In addition, quantitative real-time PCR analysis showed that the SsVQs were variously expressed under salicylic acid (SA), jasmonic acid (JA), abscisic acid (ABA) and cold treatment. This study conducted a full-scale analysis of the VQ gene family in sugarcane, which could be beneficial for the functional characterization of sugarcane VQ genes and provide candidate genes for molecular resistance breeding in cultivated sugarcane in the future.
PMID: 35683012
Int J Mol Sci , IF:5.923 , 2022 Jun , V23 (11) doi: 10.3390/ijms23116291
The Minus-End-Directed Kinesin OsDLK Shuttles to the Nucleus and Modulates the Expression of Cold-Box Factor 4.
Molecular Cell Biology, Botanical Institute, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Fritz-Haber-Weg 4, D-76131 Karlsruhe, Germany.; Center for Plant Molecular Biology (ZMBP), University of Tubingen, Auf der Morgenstelle 32, D-72076 Tubingen, Germany.
The transition to terrestrial plants was accompanied by a progressive loss of microtubule minus-end-directed dynein motors. Instead, the minus-end-directed class-XIV kinesins expanded considerably, likely related to novel functions. One of these motors, OsDLK (Dual Localisation Kinesin from rice), decorates cortical microtubules but moves into the nucleus in response to cold stress. This analysis of loss-of-function mutants in rice indicates that OsDLK participates in cell elongation during development. Since OsDLK harbours both a nuclear localisation signal and a putative leucin zipper, we asked whether the cold-induced import of OsDLK into the nucleus might correlate with specific DNA binding. Conducting a DPI-ELISA screen with recombinant OsDLKT (lacking the motor domain), we identified the Opaque2 motif as the most promising candidate. This motif is present in the promoter of NtAvr9/Cf9, the tobacco homologue of Cold-Box Factor 4, a transcription factor involved in cold adaptation. A comparative study revealed that the cold-induced accumulation of NtAvr9/Cfp9 was specifically quelled in transgenic BY-2 cells overexpressing OsDLK-GFP. These findings are discussed as a working model, where, in response to cold stress, OsDLK partitions from cortical microtubules at the plasma membrane into the nucleus and specifically modulates the expression of genes involved in cold adaptation.
PMID: 35682970
Int J Mol Sci , IF:5.923 , 2022 Jul , V23 (14) doi: 10.3390/ijms23147634
Wheat Elongator Subunit 4 Negatively Regulates Freezing Tolerance by Regulating Ethylene Accumulation.
Crop Research Institute, Shandong Academy of Agricultural Sciences/National Engineering Research Center of Wheat and Maize/Shandong Technology Innovation Center of Wheat, Jinan 252100, China.; Biotechnology Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100081, China.
Freezing stress is a major factor limiting production and geographical distribution of temperate crops. Elongator is a six subunit complex with histone acetyl-transferase activity and is involved in plant development and defense responses in Arabidopsis thaliana. However, it is unknown whether and how an elongator responds to freezing stress in plants. In this study, we found that wheat elongator subunit 4 (TaELP4) negatively regulates freezing tolerance through ethylene signaling. TaELP4 promoter contained cold response elements and was up-regulated in freezing stress. Subcellular localization showed that TaELP4 and AtELP4 localized in the cytoplasm and nucleus. Silencing of TaELP4 in wheat with BSMV-mediated VIGS approach significantly elevated tiller survival rate compared to control under freezing stress, but ectopic expression of TaELP4 in Arabidopsis increased leaf damage and survival rate compared with Col-0. Further results showed that TaELP4 positively regulated ACS2 and ACS6 transcripts, two main limiting enzymes in ethylene biosynthesis. The determination of ethylene content showed that TaELP4 overexpression resulted in more ethylene accumulated than Col-0 under freezing stress. Epigenetic research showed that histone H3K9/14ac levels significantly increased in coding/promoter regions of AtACS2 and AtACS6 in Arabidopsis. RT-qPCR assays showed that the EIN2/EIN3/EIL1-CBFs-COR pathway was regulated by TaELP4 under freezing stress. Taken together, our results suggest that TaELP4 negatively regulated plant responses to freezing stress via heightening histone acetylation levels of ACS2 and ACS6 and increasing their transcription and ethylene accumulation.
PMID: 35886984
Front Plant Sci , IF:5.753 , 2022 , V13 : P889726 doi: 10.3389/fpls.2022.889726
Transcriptome and Metabonomics Combined Analysis Revealed the Defense Mechanism Involved in Hydrogen-Rich Water-Regulated Cold Stress Response of Tetrastigma hemsleyanum.
Ningbo Municipal Hospital of TCM, Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang Chinese Medical University, Ningbo, China.; School of Marine Sciences, Ningbo University, Ningbo, China.; Chemical Biology Center, Lishui Institute of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences, Lishui, China.; Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory of Resources Protection and Innovation of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Zhejiang A&F University, Hangzhou, China.
The poor resistance to cold stress conditions has become the bottleneck problem in Tetrastigma hemsleyanum (T. hemsleyanum) planting industry. Exogenous hydrogen (H2) plays an important role in improving stress resistance in plants. However, the key factors and regulatory network of plants in response to hydrogen-rich water (HRW) treatment under environmental stress are not clear. Here, we conducted integrative analyses of metabolome and transcriptome profiles to reveal the defense mechanism involved in the HRW-regulated cold stress response of T. hemsleyanum. The application of 75% HRW could alleviate stress damage by decreasing stomatal apparatus density and significantly increasing photosynthetic efficiency and mitigating physiological indexes of resistance, such as Pn, Cond, MDA, SOD, etc., which were changed by cold stress conditions. A total of 7,883 DEGs and 439 DEMs were identified. DEGs were the most relevant to phenylpropanoid, isoflavonoid, monoterpenoid, and flavonoid biosynthesis pathways. Using gene co-expression analysis (WGCNA), we identified one gene module that showed a strong correlation between total antioxidant capacity and transpiration rate. Trend analysis indicated that the phenylpropanoid biosynthesis pathway played a major role in the transcription and metabolism process of HRW treatment under cold stress. Based on the integrated analysis of genes and metabolites, the results showed cold stress upregulated the expression of PAL, CHS, COMT, CCR, AtBG1, etc., resulting in the accumulation of coniferyl alcohol and eriodictyol contents in T. hemsleyanum under cold stress, but the 75% HRW treatment could attenuate the enhancement. The study not only identified the main strategy of HRW protection against cold stress but also provided candidate genes for flavonoid biosynthesis, so as to better improve cold tolerance through molecular breeding techniques.
PMID: 35812920
Front Plant Sci , IF:5.753 , 2022 , V13 : P908511 doi: 10.3389/fpls.2022.908511
Genome-Wide Study of Hsp90 Gene Family in Cabbage (Brassica oleracea var. capitata L.) and Their Imperative Roles in Response to Cold Stress.
College of Horticulture, Vegetable Genetics and Breeding Laboratory, Anhui Agricultural University, Hefei, China.; Guangdong Technology Research Center for Marine Algal Bioengineering, Guangdong Key Laboratory of Plant Epigenetics, College of Life Sciences and Oceanography, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, China.; School of Agronomy, Anhui Agricultural University, Hefei, China.; Department of Plant Pathology, College of Plant Protection, Anhui Agricultural University, Hefei, China.
Heat shock protein 90 (Hsp90) plays an important role in plant developmental regulation and defensive reactions. Several plant species have been examined for the Hsp90 family gene. However, the Hsp90 gene family in cabbage has not been well investigated to date. In this study, we have been discovered 12 BoHsp90 genes in cabbage (Brassica oleracea var. capitata L.). These B. oleracea Hsp90 genes were classified into five groups based on phylogenetic analysis. Among the five groups, group one contains five Hsp90 genes, including BoHsp90-1, BoHsp90-2, BoHsp90-6, BoHsp90-10, and BoHsp90-12. Group two contains three Hsp90 genes, including BoHsp90-3, BoHsp90-4, and BoHsp90. Group three only includes one Hsp90 gene, including BoHsp90-9. Group four were consisting of three Hsp90 genes including BoHsp90-5, BoHsp90-7, and BoHsp90-8, and there is no Hsp90 gene from B. oleracea in the fifth group. Synteny analysis showed that a total of 12 BoHsp90 genes have a collinearity relationship with 5 Arabidopsis genes and 10 Brassica rapa genes. The promoter evaluation revealed that the promoters of B. oleracea Hsp90 genes included environmental stress-related and hormone-responsive cis-elements. RNA-seq data analysis indicates that tissue-specific expression of BoHsp90-9 and BoHsp90-5 were highly expressed in stems, leaves, silique, and flowers. Furthermore, the expression pattern of B. oleracea BoHsp90 exhibited that BoHsp90-2, BoHsp90-3, BoHsp90-7, BoHsp90-9, BoHsp90-10, and BoHsp90-11 were induced under cold stress, which indicates these Hsp90 genes perform a vital role in cold acclimation and supports in the continual of normal growth and development process. The cabbage Hsp90 gene family was found to be differentially expressed in response to cold stress, suggesting that these genes play an important role in cabbage growth and development under cold conditions.
PMID: 35812899
Front Plant Sci , IF:5.753 , 2022 , V13 : P900011 doi: 10.3389/fpls.2022.900011
Low- and High-Temperature Phenotypic Diversity of Brassica carinata Genotypes for Early-Season Growth and Development.
Department of Plant and Soil Sciences, Mississippi State University, Starkville, MS, United States.; North Florida Research and Education Center, University of Florida, Quincy, FL, United States.; United States Department of Agriculture-National Institute of Food and Agriculture, Clinton, MS, United States.
Temperature is a major abiotic stress factor limiting plant growth and development during the early developmental stage. Information on carinata (Brassica carinata A. Braun) traits response to low and high temperatures is necessary for breeding or selecting genotypes suited for specific ecoregions, which is limited. In the present study, 12 carinata genotypes were evaluated under low (17/09 degrees C), optimum (22/14 degrees C), and high (27/19 degrees C) day/night temperatures at the early developmental stage. This study quantified temperature effects on several physiological and morphological characteristics of 12-advanced carinata lines. High-temperature plants decreased (15%) the accumulation of flavonoids and increased the nitrogen balance index by 25%. Low-temperature treatment significantly inhibited the aboveground (plant height, leaf area, number, and shoot weight) and root (length, surface area, and weight) traits. Across all genotypes, the shoot weight decreased by 55% and the root weight by 49% under low temperature. On the other hand, the maximum proportion of biomass was partitioned to roots under low temperature than at the high temperature. A poor relationship (r (2) = 0.09) was found between low- and high-temperature indices, indicating differences in trait responses and tolerance mechanisms. AX17004 and AX17009 with higher root to shoot ratios might be suitable for late planting windows or regions with low-temperature spells. The two genotypes (AX17015 and AX17005) accumulated higher biomass under low- and high-temperature treatments can be used for planting in later summer or early winter. The identified low- and high-temperature stress-tolerant carinata genotypes could be a valuable resource for increasing stress tolerance during the early developmental stage.
PMID: 35774821
Front Plant Sci , IF:5.753 , 2022 , V13 : P887103 doi: 10.3389/fpls.2022.887103
Light Quality Modulates Plant Cold Response and Freezing Tolerance.
Department of Molecular Biology and Radiobiology, Faculty of AgriSciences, Mendel University in Brno, Brno, Czechia.; Laboratory of Hormonal Regulations in Plants, Institute of Experimental Botany, The Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czechia.; Central European Institute of Technology, Faculty of AgriSciences, Mendel University in Brno, Brno, Czechia.; Institute of Biophysics of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Brno, Czechia.
The cold acclimation process is regulated by many factors like ambient temperature, day length, light intensity, or hormonal status. Experiments with plants grown under different light quality conditions indicate that the plant response to cold is also a light-quality-dependent process. Here, the role of light quality in the cold response was studied in 1-month-old Arabidopsis thaliana (Col-0) plants exposed for 1 week to 4 degrees C at short-day conditions under white (100 and 20 mumol m(-2)s(-1)), blue, or red (20 mumol m(-2)s(-1)) light conditions. An upregulated expression of CBF1, inhibition of photosynthesis, and an increase in membrane damage showed that blue light enhanced the effect of low temperature. Interestingly, cold-treated plants under blue and red light showed only limited freezing tolerance compared to white light cold-treated plants. Next, the specificity of the light quality signal in cold response was evaluated in Arabidopsis accessions originating from different and contrasting latitudes. In all but one Arabidopsis accession, blue light increased the effect of cold on photosynthetic parameters and electrolyte leakage. This effect was not found for Ws-0, which lacks functional CRY2 protein, indicating its role in the cold response. Proteomics data confirmed significant differences between red and blue light-treated plants at low temperatures and showed that the cold response is highly accession-specific. In general, blue light increased mainly the cold-stress-related proteins and red light-induced higher expression of chloroplast-related proteins, which correlated with higher photosynthetic parameters in red light cold-treated plants. Altogether, our data suggest that light modulates two distinct mechanisms during the cold treatment - red light-driven cell function maintaining program and blue light-activated specific cold response. The importance of mutual complementarity of these mechanisms was demonstrated by significantly higher freezing tolerance of cold-treated plants under white light.
PMID: 35755673
Front Plant Sci , IF:5.753 , 2022 , V13 : P888710 doi: 10.3389/fpls.2022.888710
Low Temperature Stress Tolerance: An Insight Into the Omics Approaches for Legume Crops.
Proteomics Laboratory, Division of Plant Biotechnology, Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology of Kashmir (SKUAST-K), Shalimar, India.; Department of Biotechnology, School of Biosciences and Biotechnology, Baba Ghulam Shah Badshah University, Rajouri, India.; Department of Life Sciences, Rabindranath Tagore University, Bhopal, India.; Deparment of Microbiology, University of Kashmir, Srinagar, India.; Division of Animal Biotechnology, Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology of Kashmir, Srinagar, India.; Division of Genetics and Plant Breeding, Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology of Kashmir, Srinagar, India.; Department of Agronomy, Food, Natural Resources, Animals, and Environment, University of Padova, Padua, Italy.
The change in climatic conditions is the major cause for decline in crop production worldwide. Decreasing crop productivity will further lead to increase in global hunger rate. Climate change results in environmental stress which has negative impact on plant-like deficiencies in growth, crop yield, permanent damage, or death if the plant remains in the stress conditions for prolonged period. Cold stress is one of the main abiotic stresses which have already affected the global crop production. Cold stress adversely affects the plants leading to necrosis, chlorosis, and growth retardation. Various physiological, biochemical, and molecular responses under cold stress have revealed that the cold resistance is more complex than perceived which involves multiple pathways. Like other crops, legumes are also affected by cold stress and therefore, an effective technique to mitigate cold-mediated damage is critical for long-term legume production. Earlier, crop improvement for any stress was challenging for scientific community as conventional breeding approaches like inter-specific or inter-generic hybridization had limited success in crop improvement. The availability of genome sequence, transcriptome, and proteome data provides in-depth sight into different complex mechanisms under cold stress. Identification of QTLs, genes, and proteins responsible for cold stress tolerance will help in improving or developing stress-tolerant legume crop. Cold stress can alter gene expression which further leads to increases in stress protecting metabolites to cope up the plant against the temperature fluctuations. Moreover, genetic engineering can help in development of new cold stress-tolerant varieties of legume crop. This paper provides a general insight into the "omics" approaches for cold stress in legume crops.
PMID: 35720588
Front Plant Sci , IF:5.753 , 2022 , V13 : P920195 doi: 10.3389/fpls.2022.920195
Small RNA and Degradome Deep Sequencing Reveals the Roles of microRNAs in Peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.) Cold Response.
Institute of Industrial Crops, Shanxi Agricultural University, Taiyuan, China.; State Key Laboratory of Sustainable Dryland Agriculture, Shanxi Agricultural University, Taiyuan, China.; Department of Plant Pathology, College of Plant Protection, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, China.; Laboratory of Bio-interactions and Crop Health, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, China.; Key Laboratory of Biology and Genetic Improvement of Oil Crops, Ministry of Agriculture, Oil Crops Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Wuhan, China.
Cold stress is a major environmental factor that affects plant growth and development, as well as fruit postharvest life and quality. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a class of non-coding small RNAs that play crucial roles in various abiotic stresses. Peanuts (Arachis hypogaea L.), one of the most important grain legumes and source of edible oils and proteins, are cultivated in the semi-arid tropical and subtropical regions of the world. To date, there has been no report on the role of miRNAs in the response to cold stress in cultivated peanuts. In this study, we profiled cold-responsive miRNAs in peanuts using deep sequencing in cold-sensitive (WQL20) alongside a tolerant variety (WQL30). A total of 407 known miRNAs and 143 novel peanut-specific miRNAs were identified. The expression of selected known and novel miRNAs was validated by northern blotting and six known cold-responsive miRNAs were revealed. Degradome sequencing identified six cold-responsive miRNAs that regulate 12 target genes. The correlative expression patterns of several miRNAs and their target genes were further validated using qRT-PCR. Our data showed that miR160-ARF, miR482-WDRL, miR2118-DR, miR396-GRF, miR162-DCL, miR1511-SRF, and miR1511-SPIRAL1 modules may mediate cold stress responses. Transient expression analysis in Nicotiana benthamiana found that miR160, miR482, and miR2118 may play positive roles, and miR396, miR162, and miR1511 play negative roles in the regulation of peanut cold tolerance. Our results provide a foundation for understanding miRNA-dependent cold stress response in peanuts. The characterized correlations between miRNAs and their response to cold stress could serve as markers in breeding programs or tools for improving cold tolerance of peanuts.
PMID: 35720560
Front Plant Sci , IF:5.753 , 2022 , V13 : P893495 doi: 10.3389/fpls.2022.893495
Identification of Reference Genes for Reverse Transcription-Quantitative PCR Analysis of Ginger Under Abiotic Stress and for Postharvest Biology Studies.
College of Horticulture and Gardening, Spice Crops Research Institute, Yangtze University, Jingzhou, China.; Institute of Economic Crops, Hubei Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Wuhan, China.; School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Suzhou University of Science and Technology, Suzhou, China.
Gene expression analysis largely improves our understanding of the molecular basis underpinning various plant biological processes. Stable reference genes play a foundational role during the normalization of gene expression levels. However, until now, there have been few reference genes suitable for ginger reverse transcription-quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR) research. In this study, 29 candidate reference genes with stable expression patterns across multiple ginger tissues and 13 commonly used reference genes were selected to design RT-qPCR primers. After amplification specificity validation, 32 candidates were selected and further evaluated by RT-qPCR using samples from various organs subjected to NaCl, drought, heat, waterlogging, and chilling stress. Four strategies, including delta-CT, BestKeeper, geNorm, and NormFinder, were used to rank the stability of reference genes, and the ranks produced by these four strategies were comprehensively evaluated by RefFinder to determine the final rank. Overall, the top three stability reference genes indicated by RefFinder were RBP > ATPase > 40S_S3. Their expression pattern correlation analysis showed that the coefficients among each pair of RBP, ATPase, and 40S_S3 were larger than 0.96, revealing consistent and stable expression patterns under various treatments. Then, the expression of three pathogenesis-related (PR) genes and seven MYB genes in rhizomes during postharvest storage and subjected to pathogen infection was normalized by RBP, ATPase, 40S_S3, RBP and ATPase, ATPase and 40S-S3, and RBP and 40S-S3. The results showed that PR and MYB genes were induced by postharvest deterioration and pathogen infection. The correlation coefficients of RBP/ATPase, RBP/40S_S3, ATPase/40S_S3, RBP and ATPase/ATPase and 40S-S3, RBP and ATPase/RBP and 40S-S3, and ATPase and 40S-S3/RBP and 40S-S3 were 0.99, 0.96, 0.99, 0.99, 1.00, and 1.00, respectively, which confirmed the stability of these three reference genes in postharvest biology studies of ginger. In summary, this study identified appropriate reference genes for RT-qPCR in ginger and facilitated gene expression studies under biotic and abiotic stress conditions.
PMID: 35734245
Front Plant Sci , IF:5.753 , 2022 , V13 : P803400 doi: 10.3389/fpls.2022.803400
Transcriptome of Endophyte-Positive and Endophyte-Free Tall Fescue Under Field Stresses.
Grass Genomics, Noble Research Institute LLC, Ardmore, OK, United States.; Genetics Laboratory, Indiana Crop Improvement Association, Lafayette, IN, United States.; Scientific Computing, Noble Research Institute LLC, Ardmore, OK, United States.; Genomics Core Facility, Noble Research Institute LLC, Ardmore, OK, United States.; Genomics Center, BioDiscovery Institute, University of North Texas, Denton, TX, United States.
Tall fescue is one of the primary sources of forage for livestock. It grows well in the marginal soils of the temperate zones. It hosts a fungal endophyte (Epichloe coenophiala), which helps the plants to tolerate abiotic and biotic stresses. The genomic and transcriptomic resources of tall fescue are very limited, due to a complex genetic background and outbreeding modes of pollination. The aim of this study was to identify differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in two tissues (pseudostem and leaf blade) between novel endophyte positive (E+) and endophyte-free (E-) Texoma MaxQ II tall fescue genotypes. Samples were collected at three diurnal time points: morning (7:40-9:00 am), afternoon (1:15-2:15 pm), and evening (4:45-5:45 pm) in the field environment. By exploring the transcriptional landscape via RNA-seq, for the first time, we generated 226,054 and 224,376 transcripts from E+ and E- tall fescue, respectively through de novo assembly. The upregulated transcripts were detected fewer than the downregulated ones in both tissues (S: 803 up and 878 down; L: 783 up and 846 down) under the freezing temperatures (-3.0-0.5 degrees C) in the morning. Gene Ontology enrichment analysis identified 3 out of top 10 significant GO terms only in the morning samples. Metabolic pathway and biosynthesis of secondary metabolite genes showed lowest number of DEGs under morning freezing stress and highest number in evening cold condition. The 1,085 DEGs were only expressed under morning stress condition and, more importantly, the eight candidate orthologous genes of rice identified under morning freezing temperatures, including orthologs of rice phytochrome A, phytochrome C, and ethylene receptor genes, might be the possible route underlying cold tolerance in tall fescue.
PMID: 35774806
Genomics , IF:5.736 , 2022 Jul : P110433 doi: 10.1016/j.ygeno.2022.110433
Dynamicity of histone H3K27ac and H3K27me3 modifications regulate the cold-responsive gene expression in Oryza sativa L. ssp. indica.
Division of Plant Biology, Bose Institute, Unified Academic Campus, EN 80, Sector V, Bidhan Nagar, Kolkata 700091, WB, India.; Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research (AcSIR), Ghaziabad 201002, India; CSIR-National Botanical Research Institute (CSIR-NBRI), Rana Pratap Marg, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh 226001, India.; Division of Plant Biology, Bose Institute, Unified Academic Campus, EN 80, Sector V, Bidhan Nagar, Kolkata 700091, WB, India. Electronic address: shubho@jcbose.ac.in.
Cultivated in tropical and subtropical regions, Oryza sativa L. ssp. indica is largely affected by cold-stress, especially at the seedling stage. The present model of the stress-responsive regulatory network in plants entails the role of genetic and epigenetic factors in stress-responsive gene expression. Despite extensive transcriptomic studies, the regulation of various epigenetic factors in plants cold-stress response is less explored. The present study addresses the effect of genome-wide changes of H3K27 modifications on gene expression in IR64 rice, during cold-stress. Our results suggest a positive correlation between the changes in H3K27 modifications and stress-responsive gene activation in indica rice. Cold-induced enrichment of H3K27 acetylation promotes nucleosomal rearrangement, thereby facilitating the accessibility of the transcriptional machinery at the stress-responsive loci for transcription activation. Although H3K27ac exhibits uniform distribution throughout the loci of enriched genes; occupancy of H3K27me3 is biased to intergenic regions. Integration of the ChIP-seq data with transcriptome indicated that upregulation of stress-responsive TFs, photosynthesis-TCA-related, water-deficit genes, redox and JA signalling components, was associated with differential changes of H3K27ac and H3K27me3 levels. Furthermore, cold-induced upregulation of histone acetyltransferases and downregulation of DNA methyltransferases was noted through the antagonistic switch of H3K27ac and H3K27me3. Moreover, motif analysis of H3K27ac and H3K27me3 enriched regions are associated with putative stress responsive transcription factors binding sites, GAGA element and histone H3K27demethylase. Collectively our analysis suggests that differential expression of various chromatin and DNA modifiers coupled with increased H3K27ac and depleted H3K27me3 increases DNA accessibility, thereby promoting transcription of the cold-responsive genes in indica rice.
PMID: 35863676
Theor Appl Genet , IF:5.699 , 2022 Jul , V135 (7) : P2353-2367 doi: 10.1007/s00122-022-04117-9
OsWRKY115 on qCT7 links to cold tolerance in rice.
Key Laboratory of Germplasm Enhancement, Physiology and Ecology of Food Crops in Cold Region, Ministry of Education, Northeast Agricultural University, Harbin, 150030, China.; National Key Facility for Crop Resources and Genetic Improvement, Institute of Crop Science, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, 100081, China.; Biotechnology Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, 100081, China.; National Key Facility for Crop Resources and Genetic Improvement, Institute of Crop Science, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, 100081, China. liujun@caas.cn.; Key Laboratory of Germplasm Enhancement, Physiology and Ecology of Food Crops in Cold Region, Ministry of Education, Northeast Agricultural University, Harbin, 150030, China. zoudtneau@126.com.
KEY MESSAGE: qCT7, a novel QTL for increasing seedling cold tolerance in rice, was fine-mapped to a 70.9-kb region on chromosome 7, and key OsWRKY115 was identified in transgenic plants. Cold stress caused by underground cold-water irrigation seriously limits rice productivity. We systemically measured the cold-responsive traits of 2,570 F2 individuals derived from two widely cultivated rice cultivars, Kong-Yu-131 and Dong-Nong-422, to identify the major genomic regions associated with cold tolerance. A novel major QTL, qCT7, was mapped on chromosome 7 associated with the cold tolerance and survival, using whole-genome re-sequencing with bulked segregant analysis. Local QTL linkage analysis with F2 and fine mapping with recombinant plant revealed a 70.9-kb core region on qCT7 encoding 13 protein-coding genes. Only the LOC_Os07g27670 expression level encoding the OsWRKY115 transcription factor on the locus was specifically induced by cold stress in the cold-tolerant cultivar. Moreover, haplotype analysis and the KASP8 marker indicated that OsWRKY115 was significantly associated with cold tolerance. Overexpression and knockout of OsWRKY115 significantly affected cold tolerance in seedlings. Our experiments identified OsWRKY115 as a novel regulatory gene associated with cold response in rice, and the Kong-Yu-131 allele with specific cold-induced expression may be an important molecular variant.
PMID: 35622122
Microbiol Res , IF:5.415 , 2022 Jul , V260 : P127049 doi: 10.1016/j.micres.2022.127049
Psychrotrophic plant beneficial bacteria from the glacial ecosystem of Sikkim Himalaya: Genomic evidence for the cold adaptation and plant growth promotion.
Biotechnology Division, CSIR-Institute of Himalayan Bioresource Technology, Post Box No. 06, Palampur 176 061, Himachal Pradesh, India; Department of Microbiology, Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar 143 005, Punjab, India.; Biotechnology Division, CSIR-Institute of Himalayan Bioresource Technology, Post Box No. 06, Palampur 176 061, Himachal Pradesh, India; Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research (AcSIR), Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh 201 002, India.; Biotechnology Division, CSIR-Institute of Himalayan Bioresource Technology, Post Box No. 06, Palampur 176 061, Himachal Pradesh, India.; Biotechnology Division, CSIR-Institute of Himalayan Bioresource Technology, Post Box No. 06, Palampur 176 061, Himachal Pradesh, India. Electronic address: rakshak@ihbt.res.in.
Commercial biofertilizers tend to be ineffective in cold mountainous regions due to reduced metabolic activity of the microbial inoculants under low temperatures. Cold-adapted glacier bacteria with plant growth-promoting (PGP) properties may prove significant in developing cold-active biofertilizers for improving mountain agriculture. With this perspective, the cultivable bacterial diversity was documented from the East Rathong glacier ecosystem lying above 3900 masl of Sikkim Himalaya. A total of 120 bacterial isolates affiliated to Gammaproteobacteria (53.33%), Bacteroidetes (16.66%), Actinobacteria (15.83%), Betaproteobacteria (6.66%), Alphaproteobacteria (4.16%), and Firmicutes (3.33%) were recovered. Fifty-two isolates showed many in vitro PGP activities of phosphate solubilization (9-100 microg/mL), siderophore production (0.3-100 psu) and phytohormone indole acetic acid production (0.3-139 microg/mL) at 10 degrees C. Plant-based bioassays revealed an enhancement of shoot length by 21%, 22%, and 13% in ERGS5:01, ERMR1:04, and ERMR1:05, and root length by 14%, 17%, 11%, and 22% in ERGS4:06, ERGS5:01, ERMR1:04, and ERMR1:05 treated seeds respectively. An increased shoot dry weight of 4-29% in ERMR1:05 and ERMR1:04, and root dry weight of 42-98% was found in all the treatments. Genome analysis of four bacteria from diverse genera predicted many genes involved in the bacterial PGP activity. Comparative genome study highlighted the presence of PGP-associated unique genes for glucose dehydrogenase, siderophore receptor, tryptophan synthase, phosphate metabolism (phoH, P, Q, R, U), nitrate and nitrite reductase, TonB-dependent receptor, spermidine/putrescine ABC transporter etc. in the representative bacteria. The expression levels of seven cold stress-responsive genes in the cold-adapted bacterium ERGS4:06 using real-time quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR) showed an upregulation of all these genes by 6-17% at 10 degrees C, and by 3-33% during cold-shock, which indicates the cold adaptation strategy of the bacterium. Overall, this study signifies the psychrotrophic bacterial diversity from an extreme glacier environment as a potential tool for improving plant growth under cold environmental stress.
PMID: 35504236
Plant Sci , IF:4.729 , 2022 Jul , V323 : P111370 doi: 10.1016/j.plantsci.2022.111370
A novel long noncoding RNA CIL1 enhances cold stress tolerance in Arabidopsis.
Key Lab of Plant Biotechnology in University of Shandong Province, College of Life Science, Qingdao Agricultural University, Qingdao, China.; Key Lab of Plant Biotechnology in University of Shandong Province, College of Life Science, Qingdao Agricultural University, Qingdao, China. Electronic address: liuxin6080@126.com.
With the intensification of global warming, extreme weather events have occurred more frequently, among which cold stress has become one of the major environmental factors that restrict global crop yield and production. Multiple long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been predicted or recognized in the plant response to cold stress, however, the molecular biological functions of most of these RNAs are still poorly understood. Here, we identified a novel lncRNA, COLD INDUCED lncRNA 1 (CIL1), as a positive regulator of the plant response to cold stress in Arabidopsis. CIL1 was significantly induced when the plant was exposed to cold stress. Moreover, knockdown mutants showed more sensitivity to cold stress than the wild type did, accompanied by an increased content of endogenous ROS (reactive oxygen species) and reduced osmoregulatory substances. Genome-wide transcriptome analysis indicated that 256 genes were downregulated and 34 genes were upregulated in cil1 mutants under cold stress, which were mainly involved in hormone signal transduction, ROS homeostasis and glucose metabolism. Our study implies that CIL1 has a positive effect on the plant response to cold stress by regulating the expression of multiple stress-related genes during the seedling stage.
PMID: 35788028
Plant Sci , IF:4.729 , 2022 Jul , V320 : P111284 doi: 10.1016/j.plantsci.2022.111284
AcCIPK5, a pineapple CBL-interacting protein kinase, confers salt, osmotic and cold stress tolerance in transgenic Arabidopsis.
Center for Genomics and Biotechnology, Fujian Provincial Key Laboratory of Haixia Applied Plant Systems Biology, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou 350002, Fujian, China; Guangxi Key Lab of Sugarcane Biology, State Key Laboratory for Conservation and Utilization of Subtropical Agro-Bioresources, College of Agriculture, Guangxi University, Nanning 530004, Guangxi, China.; Center for Genomics and Biotechnology, Fujian Provincial Key Laboratory of Haixia Applied Plant Systems Biology, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou 350002, Fujian, China.; Horticulture Research Institute, Guangxi Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Nanning Investigation Station of South Subtropical Fruit Trees, Ministry of Agriculture, Nanning 530007, China.; Center for Genomics and Biotechnology, Fujian Provincial Key Laboratory of Haixia Applied Plant Systems Biology, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou 350002, Fujian, China; Guangxi Key Lab of Sugarcane Biology, State Key Laboratory for Conservation and Utilization of Subtropical Agro-Bioresources, College of Agriculture, Guangxi University, Nanning 530004, Guangxi, China. Electronic address: yuanqin@fafu.edu.cn.
Plant-specific calcineurin B-like proteins (CBLs) and their interacting kinases, CBL-interacting protein kinases (CIPKs) module, are essential for dealing with various biotic and abiotic stress. The kinases (CIPKs) of this module have been well studied in several plants; however, the information about pineapple CIPKs remains limited. To understand how CIPKs function against environmental cues in pineapple, the CIPK5 gene of pineapple was cloned and characterized. The phylogenetic analyses revealed that AcCIPK5 is homologous to the CIPK12 of Arabidopsis and other plant species. Quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) analysis revealed that AcCIPK5 responds to multiple stresses, including osmotic, salt stress, heat and cold. Under optimal conditions, AcCIPK5 gets localized to the cytoplasm and cell membrane. The ectopic expression of AcCIPK5 in Arabidopsis improved the germination under osmotic and salt stress. Furthermore, AcCIPK5 positively regulated osmotic, drought, salt and cold tolerance and negatively regulated heat and fungal stress in Arabidopsis. Besides, the expression of AcCIPK impacted ABA-related genes and ROS homeostasis. Overall, the present study demonstrates that AcCIPK5 contributes to multiple stress tolerance and has the potential to be utilized in the development of stress-tolerant crops.
PMID: 35643609
Plant Sci , IF:4.729 , 2022 Jul , V320 : P111281 doi: 10.1016/j.plantsci.2022.111281
Enhanced brassinosteroid signaling via the overexpression of SlBRI1 positively regulates the chilling stress tolerance of tomato.
Key Laboratory of Southwest China Wildlife Resources Conservation (Ministry of Education), College of Life Science, China West Normal University, Nanchong 637009, China.; Key Laboratory of Southwest China Wildlife Resources Conservation (Ministry of Education), College of Life Science, China West Normal University, Nanchong 637009, China. Electronic address: nieshuming@163.com.
Brassinosteroids (BRs) regulate plant development and response to stress. BRASSINOSTEROID INSENSITIVE 1 (BRI1) is a BR receptor that activates BR signaling. Although the function of the tomato BR receptor SlBRI1 in regulating growth and drought resistance has been examined, that of SlBRI1 in cold tolerance is unclear. This study indicated that the expression of SlBRI1 in tomato was rapidly induced and reached its highest level at 3 h under chilling treatment and then decreased. The overexpression of SlBRI1 displayed low relative electrolyte leakage, malondialdehyde content, and reactive oxygen species (ROS) accumulation under chilling stress. The proline content and activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD), peroxidase (POD), and catalase (CAT) in SlBRI1OE plants were higher than those in the wild-type (WT) plants after chilling stress. The transcript abundances of five cold-responsive genes were higher in SlBRI1OE plants than in WT plants during chilling stress. RNA sequence analysis showed that the expression of the majority of genes encoding photosystem I and II were downregulated. The degree of suppression in SlBRI1OE plants was weaker than that in WT plants. Additionally, the Pn and Fv/Fm of SlBRI1OE plants were significantly higher than those of WT plants under chilling stress. We identified several genes encoding key enzymes in BRs; indole acetic acid (IAA), gibberellin (GA), and abscisic acid (ABA) biosynthesis or signaling were upregulated or downregulated during chilling stress. Chilling stress decreased the BRs and GA3 content, and increased IAA and ABA content. The contents were lower or higher in SlBRI1OE than in WT plants. Furthermore, chilling stress regulated the expression levels of 43 transcription factors. The expression of seven cold-regulated protein genes was higher or lower in SlBRI1OE plants than in WT plants under chilling stress. These results suggest that SlBRI1 positively regulates chilling tolerance mainly through ICE1-CBF-COR pathway in tomato.
PMID: 35643607
Plant Cell Rep , IF:4.57 , 2022 Aug , V41 (8) : P1673-1691 doi: 10.1007/s00299-022-02883-w
VaMYB44 transcription factor from Chinese wild Vitis amurensis negatively regulates cold tolerance in transgenic Arabidopsis thaliana and V. vinifera.
College of Horticulture, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, Xianyang, 712100, Shaanxi, China.; Key Laboratory of Horticultural Plant Biology and Germplasm Innovation in Northwest China, Ministry of Agriculture, Yangling, Xianyang, 712100, Shaanxi, China.; State Key Laboratory of Crop Stress Biology in Arid Areas, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, Xianyang, 712100, Shaanxi, China.; College of Horticulture, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, Xianyang, 712100, Shaanxi, China. zhangjx666@126.com.; Key Laboratory of Horticultural Plant Biology and Germplasm Innovation in Northwest China, Ministry of Agriculture, Yangling, Xianyang, 712100, Shaanxi, China. zhangjx666@126.com.; State Key Laboratory of Crop Stress Biology in Arid Areas, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, Xianyang, 712100, Shaanxi, China. zhangjx666@126.com.
KEY MESSAGE: Heterologous expression of VaMYB44 gene in Arabidopsis and V. vinifera cv. 'Thompson Seedless' increases cold sensitivity, which is mediated by the interaction of VaMYC2 and VaTIFY5A with VaMYB44 MYB transcription factors play critical roles in plant stress response. However, the function of MYB44 under low temperature stress is largely unknown in grapes. Here, we isolated a VaMYB44 gene from Chinese wild Vitis amurensis acc. 'Shuangyou' (cold-resistant). The VaMYB44 is expressed in various organs and has lower expression levels in stems and young leaves. Exposure of the cold-sensitive V. vinifera cv. 'Thompson Seedless' and cold-resistant 'Shuangyou' grapevines to cold stress (-1 degrees C) resulted in differential expression of MYB44 in leaves with the former reaching 14 folds of the latter after 3 h of cold stress. Moreover, the expression of VaMYB44 was induced by exogenous ethylene, abscisic acid, and methyl jasmonate in the leaves of 'Shuangyou'. Notably, the subcellular localization assay identified VaMYB44 in the nucleus. Interestingly, heterologous expression of VaMYB44 in Arabidopsis and 'Thompson Seedless' grape increased freezing-induced damage compared to their wild-type counterparts. Accordingly, the transgenic lines had higher malondialdehyde content and electrolyte permeability, and lower activities of superoxide dismutase, peroxidase, and catalase. Moreover, the expression levels of some cold resistance-related genes decreased in transgenic lines. Protein interaction assays identified VaMYC2 and VaTIFY5A as VaMYB44 interacting proteins, and VaMYC2 could bind to the VaMYB44 promoter and promote its transcription. In conclusion, the study reveals VaMYB44 as the negative regulator of cold tolerance in transgenic Arabidopsis and transgenic grapes, and VaMYC2 and VaTIFY5A are involved in the cold sensitivity of plants by interacting with VaMYB44.
PMID: 35666271
Physiol Plant , IF:4.5 , 2022 Jul : Pe13740 doi: 10.1111/ppl.13740
Specific CBF transcription factors and cold-responsive genes fine-tune the early triggering response after acquisition of cold priming and memory.
Max-Planck-Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology, Am Muhlenberg 1, 14476 Potsdam, Germany.
Plants need to adapt to fluctuating temperatures throughout their lifetime. Previous research showed that Arabidopsis memorizes a first cold stress (priming) and improves its primed freezing tolerance further when subjected to a second similar stress after a lag phase. This study investigates primary metabolomic and transcriptomic changes during early cold priming or triggering after three days at 4 degrees C interrupted by a memory phase. DREB1 family transcription factors DREB1C/CBF2, DREB1D/CBF4, DREB1E/DDF2 and DREB1F/DDF1 were strongly significantly induced throughout the entire triggering. During triggering, genes encoding Late Embryogenesis Abundant (LEA), antifreeze proteins or detoxifiers of reactive oxygen species (ROS) were higher expressed compared to priming. Examples of early triggering responders were xyloglucan endotransglucosylase/hydrolase genes encoding proteins involved in cell wall remodelling, while late responders were identified to act in fine-tuning the stress response and developmental regulation. Induction of non-typical members of the DREB subfamily of ERF/AP2 transcription factors, the relatively small number of induced CBF regulon genes and a slower accumulation of selected cold stress associated metabolites indicate that a cold triggering stimulus might be sensed as milder stress in plants compared to priming. Further, strong induction of CBF4 throughout triggering suggests a unique function of this gene for the response to alternating temperatures.
PMID: 35776365
Sci Rep , IF:4.379 , 2022 Jul , V12 (1) : P11593 doi: 10.1038/s41598-022-15821-3
Photosynthetic response and antioxidative activity of 'Hass' avocado cultivar treated with short-term low temperature.
Research Institute of Climate Change and Agriculture, National Institute of Horticultural and Herbal Science, Jeju, 63240, Republic of Korea. jsw599@korea.kr.; Department of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture, National Taiwan University, Taipei, 10617, Taiwan.; Research Institute of Climate Change and Agriculture, National Institute of Horticultural and Herbal Science, Jeju, 63240, Republic of Korea.
To investigate the effects of short-term low temperatures, three-year-old avocado (Persea americana cv. Hass) seedlings were treated with 1, - 2, or - 5 degrees C for 1 h and subsequently recovered in ambient condition for 24 h. Leaf color changes were investigated with chlorophyll, carotenoid, and phenolic contents. Photosynthetic responses were examined using gas exchange analysis. With H2O2 contents as oxidative stresses, enzymatic (ascorbate peroxidase, APX; glutathione reductase, GR; catalase, CAT; peroxidase, POD) and non-enzymatic antioxidant activities were determined using spectrophotometry. Leaves in the avocado seedlings started to be discolored with changes in the contents of chlorophyll a, carotenoids, and phenolics when treated with - 5 degrees C. However, the H2O2 content was not different in leaves treated with low temperatures. Photosynthetic activities decreased in leaves in the seedlings treated with - 5 degrees C. Of antioxidant enzymes, APX and GR have high activities in leaves in the seedlings treated with 1 and - 2 degrees C. In leaves in the seedlings treated with - 5 degrees C, the activities of all enzymes decreased. Non-enzymatic antioxidant activity was not different among leaves treated with low temperatures. These results indicated that APX and GR would play a critical role in withstanding chilling stress in 'Hass' avocado seedlings. However, under lethal temperature, even for a short time, the plants suffered irreversible damage with the breakdown of photosystem and antioxidant system.
PMID: 35804002
BMC Plant Biol , IF:4.215 , 2022 Jul , V22 (1) : P369 doi: 10.1186/s12870-022-03767-7
Transcriptome-based gene regulatory network analyses of differential cold tolerance of two tobacco cultivars.
State Key Laboratory for Crop Genetics and Germplasm Enhancement, CIC-MCP, Nanjing Agricultural University, No.1 Weigang, Nanjing, 210095, Jiangsu, China.; Hunan Tobacco Research Institute, Changsha, 410128, Hunan, China.; State Key Laboratory for Crop Genetics and Germplasm Enhancement, CIC-MCP, Nanjing Agricultural University, No.1 Weigang, Nanjing, 210095, Jiangsu, China. xuejiaocheng@njau.edu.cn.; Hunan Tobacco Research Institute, Changsha, 410128, Hunan, China. 495298768@qq.com.; State Key Laboratory for Crop Genetics and Germplasm Enhancement, CIC-MCP, Nanjing Agricultural University, No.1 Weigang, Nanjing, 210095, Jiangsu, China. wzhang25@njau.edu.cn.
BACKGROUND: Cold is one of the main abiotic stresses that severely affect plant growth and development, and crop productivity as well. Transcriptional changes during cold stress have already been intensively studied in various plant species. However, the gene networks involved in the regulation of differential cold tolerance between tobacco varieties with contrasting cold resistance are quite limited. RESULTS: Here, we conducted multiple time-point transcriptomic analyses using Tai tobacco (TT, cold susceptibility) and Yan tobacco (YT, cold resistance) with contrasting cold responses. We identified similar DEGs in both cultivars after comparing with the corresponding control (without cold treatment), which were mainly involved in response to abiotic stimuli, metabolic processes, kinase activities. Through comparison of the two cultivars at each time point, in contrast to TT, YT had higher expression levels of the genes responsible for environmental stresses. By applying Weighted Gene Co-Expression Network Analysis (WGCNA), we identified two main modules: the pink module was similar while the brown module was distinct between the two cultivars. Moreover, we obtained 100 hub genes, including 11 important transcription factors (TFs) potentially involved in cold stress, 3 key TFs in the brown module and 8 key TFs in the pink module. More importantly, according to the genetic regulatory networks (GRNs) between TFs and other genes or TFs by using GENIE3, we identified 3 TFs (ABI3/VP1, ARR-B and WRKY) mainly functioning in differential cold responses between two cultivars, and 3 key TFs (GRAS, AP2-EREBP and C2H2) primarily involved in cold responses. CONCLUSION: Collectively, our study provides valuable resources for transcriptome- based gene network studies of cold responses in tobacco. It helps to reveal how key cold responsive TFs or other genes are regulated through network. It also helps to identify the potential key cold responsive genes for the genetic manipulation of tobacco cultivars with enhanced cold tolerance in the future.
PMID: 35879667
BMC Plant Biol , IF:4.215 , 2022 Jul , V22 (1) : P344 doi: 10.1186/s12870-022-03704-8
Overexpression VaPYL9 improves cold tolerance in tomato by regulating key genes in hormone signaling and antioxidant enzyme.
College of Horticulture, Gansu Agricultural University, Lanzhou, 730070, People's Republic of China.; College of Horticulture, Gansu Agricultural University, Lanzhou, 730070, People's Republic of China. maojuan@gsau.edu.cn.
BACKGROUND: Abscisic acid (ABA) has been reported in controlling plant growth and development, and particularly dominates a role in resistance to abiotic stress. The Pyrabactin Resistance1/PYR1-Like /Regulatory Components of ABA receptors (PYR1/PYL/RCAR) gene family, of which the PYL9 is a positive regulator related to stress response in ABA signaling transduction. Although the family has been identified in grape, detailed VaPYL9 function in cold stress remains unknown. RESULTS: In order to explore the cold tolerance mechanism in grape, VaPYL9 was cloned from Vitis amurensis. The subcellular localization showed that VaPYL9 was mainly expressed in the plasma membrane. Yeast two-hybrid (Y2H) showed VaPCMT might be a potential interaction protein of VaPYL9. Through the overexpression of VaPYL9 in tomatoes, results indicated transgenic plants had higher antioxidant enzyme activities and proline content, lower malondialdehyde (MDA) and H2O2 content, and improving the ability to scavenge reactive oxygen species than wild-type (WT). Additionally, ABA content and the ratio of ABA/IAA kept a higher level than WT. Quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) showed that VaPYL9, SlNCED3, SlABI5, and antioxidant enzyme genes (POD, SOD, CAT) were up-regulated in transgenic tomatoes. Transcriptome sequencing (RNA-seq) found that VaPYL9 overexpression caused the upregulation of key genes PYR/PYL, PYL4, MAPK17/18, and WRKY in transgenic tomatoes under cold stress. CONCLUSION: Overexpression VaPYL9 enhances cold resistance of transgenic tomatoes mediated by improving antioxidant enzymes activity, reducing membrane damages, and regulating key genes in plant hormones signaling and antioxidant enzymes.
PMID: 35840891
BMC Plant Biol , IF:4.215 , 2022 Jul , V22 (1) : P333 doi: 10.1186/s12870-022-03718-2
Transcription-associated metabolomic profiling reveals the critical role of frost tolerance in wheat.
Institute of Cereal and Oil Crops, Hebei Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences, Crop Genetics and Breeding Laboratory of Hebei, Shijiazhuang, 050000, China.; Handan Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Handan, 056000, Hebei, China.; Institute of Cereal and Oil Crops, Hebei Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences, Crop Genetics and Breeding Laboratory of Hebei, Shijiazhuang, 050000, China. zwslihui@163.com.; Institute of Cereal and Oil Crops, Hebei Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences, Crop Genetics and Breeding Laboratory of Hebei, Shijiazhuang, 050000, China. chenxiyong3691@163.com.
BACKGROUND: Low temperature is a crucial stress factor of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) and adversely impacts on plant growth and grain yield. Multi-million tons of grain production are lost annually because crops lack the resistance to survive in winter. Particularlly, winter wheat yields was severely damaged under extreme cold conditions. However, studies about the transcriptional and metabolic mechanisms underlying cold stresses in wheat are limited so far. RESULTS: In this study, 14,466 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were obtained between wild-type and cold-sensitive mutants, of which 5278 DEGs were acquired after cold treatment. 88 differential accumulated metabolites (DAMs) were detected, including P-coumaroyl putrescine of alkaloids, D-proline betaine of mino acids and derivativ, Chlorogenic acid of the Phenolic acids. The comprehensive analysis of metabolomics and transcriptome showed that the cold resistance of wheat was closely related to 13 metabolites and 14 key enzymes in the flavonol biosynthesis pathway. The 7 enhanced energy metabolites and 8 up-regulation key enzymes were also compactly involved in the sucrose and amino acid biosynthesis pathway. Moreover, quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) revealed that twelve key genes were differentially expressed under cold, indicating that candidate genes POD, Tacr7, UGTs, and GSTU6 which were related to cold resistance of wheat. CONCLUSIONS: In this study, we obtained the differentially expressed genes and differential accumulated metabolites in wheat under cold stress. Using the DEGs and DAMs, we plotted regulatory pathway maps of the flavonol biosynthesis pathway, sucrose and amino acid biosynthesis pathway related to cold resistance of wheat. It was found that candidate genes POD, Tacr7, UGTs and GSTU6 are related to cold resistance of wheat. This study provided valuable molecular information and new genetic engineering clues for the further study on plant resistance to cold stress.
PMID: 35820806
BMC Plant Biol , IF:4.215 , 2022 Jun , V22 (1) : P274 doi: 10.1186/s12870-022-03661-2
The Kandelia obovata transcription factor KoWRKY40 enhances cold tolerance in transgenic Arabidopsis.
State Key Laboratory of Tropical Oceanography, South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, 510301, China.; Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Guangzhou), Guangzhou, 511458, China.; Innovation Academy of South China Sea Ecology and Environmental Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, 510301, China.; State Key Laboratory of Tropical Oceanography, South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, 510301, China. yswang@scsio.ac.cn.; Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Guangzhou), Guangzhou, 511458, China. yswang@scsio.ac.cn.; Innovation Academy of South China Sea Ecology and Environmental Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, 510301, China. yswang@scsio.ac.cn.; State Key Laboratory of Tropical Oceanography, South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, 510301, China. chenghao@scsio.ac.cn.; Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Guangzhou), Guangzhou, 511458, China. chenghao@scsio.ac.cn.; Innovation Academy of South China Sea Ecology and Environmental Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, 510301, China. chenghao@scsio.ac.cn.; Department of Cell Biology & Institute of Biomedicine, National Engineering Research Center of Genetic Medicine, MOE Key Laboratory of Tumor Molecular Biology, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Bioengineering Medicine, College of Life Science and Technology, Jinan University, Guangzhou, 510632, China.; Root Biology Center, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou, 350002, China.
BACKGROUND: WRKY transcription factors play key roles in plant development processes and stress response. Kandelia obovata is the most cold-resistant species of mangrove plants, which are the important contributors to coastal marine environment. However, there is little known about the WRKY genes in K. obovata. RESULTS: In this study, a WRKY transcription factor gene, named KoWRKY40, was identified from mangrove plant K. obovata. The full-length cDNA of KoWRKY40 gene was 1420 nucleotide bases, which encoded 318 amino acids. The KoWRKY40 protein contained a typical WRKY domain and a C2H2 zinc-finger motif, which were common signatures to group II of WRKY family. The three-dimensional (3D) model of KoWRKY40 was formed by one alpha-helix and five beta-strands. Evolutionary analysis revealed that KoWRKY40 has the closest homology with a WRKY protein from another mangrove plant Bruguiera gymnorhiza. The KoWRKY40 protein was verified to be exclusively located in nucleus of tobacco epidermis cells. Gene expression analysis demonstrated that KoWRKY40 was induced highly in the roots and leaves, but lowly in stems in K. obovata under cold stress. Overexpression of KoWRKY40 in Arabidopsis significantly enhanced the fresh weight, root length, and lateral root number of the transgenic lines under cold stress. KoWRKY40 transgenic Arabidopsis exhibited higher proline content, SOD, POD, and CAT activities, and lower MDA content, and H2O2 content than wild-type Arabidopsis under cold stress condition. Cold stress affected the expression of genes related to proline biosynthesis, antioxidant system, and the ICE-CBF-COR signaling pathway, including AtP5CS1, AtPRODH1, AtMnSOD, AtPOD, AtCAT1, AtCBF1, AtCBF2, AtICE1, AtCOR47 in KoWRKY40 transgenic Arabidopsis plants. CONCLUSION: These results demonstrated that KoWRKY40 conferred cold tolerance in transgenic Arabidopsis by regulating plant growth, osmotic balance, the antioxidant system, and ICE-CBF-COR signaling pathway. The study indicates that KoWRKY40 is an important regulator involved in the cold stress response in plants.
PMID: 35659253
BMC Plant Biol , IF:4.215 , 2022 Jun , V22 (1) : P277 doi: 10.1186/s12870-022-03654-1
Transcriptome analysis of the winter wheat Dn1 in response to cold stress.
College of Life Science, Northeast Agricultural University, Harbin, 150030, People's Republic of China.; College of Life Science, Northeast Agricultural University, Harbin, 150030, People's Republic of China. 1936958667@qq.com.
BACKGROUND: Heilongjiang Province has a long and cold winter season (the minimum temperature can reach -30 ), and few winter wheat varieties can safely overwinter. Dongnongdongmai1 (Dn1) is the first winter wheat variety that can safely overwinter in Heilongjiang Province. This variety fills the gap for winter wheat cultivation in the frigid region of China and greatly increases the land utilization rate. To understand the molecular mechanism of the cold response, we conducted RNA-sequencing analysis of Dn1 under cold stress. RESULTS: Approximately 120,000 genes were detected in Dn1 under cold stress. The numbers of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in the six comparison groups (0 vs. 5 , -5 vs. 5 , -10 vs. 5 , -15 vs. 5 , -20 vs. 5 and -25 vs. 5 ) were 11,313, 8313, 15,636, 13,671, 14,294 and 13,979, respectively. Gene Ontology functional annotation suggested that the DEGs under cold stress mainly had "binding", "protein kinase" and "catalytic" activities and were involved in "oxidation-reduction", "protein phosphorylation" and "carbohydrate metabolic" processes. Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes enrichment analysis indicated that the DEGs performed important functions in cold signal transduction and carbohydrate metabolism. In addition, major transcription factors (AP2/ERF, bZIP, NAC, WRKY, bHLH and MYB) participating in the Dn1 cold stress response were activated by low temperature. CONCLUSION: This is the first study to explore the Dn1 transcriptome under cold stress. Our study comprehensively analysed the key genes involved in cold signal transduction and carbohydrate metabolism in Dn1 under cold stress. The results obtained by transcriptome analysis could help to further explore the cold resistance mechanism of Dn1 and provide basis for breeding of cold-resistant crops.
PMID: 35659183
BMC Plant Biol , IF:4.215 , 2022 Jun , V22 (1) : P270 doi: 10.1186/s12870-022-03664-z
Comprehensive analysis of cucumber C-repeat/dehydration-responsive element binding factor family genes and their potential roles in cold tolerance of cucumber.
School of Biological Science and Technology, University of Jinan, Jinan, 250022, China.; Shandong Institute of Pomology, Tai'an, Shandong, 271000, China. 374141645@qq.com.; School of Biological Science and Technology, University of Jinan, Jinan, 250022, China. 163.hwx@163.com.
BACKGROUND: Cold stress is one of the main abiotic stresses limiting cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) growth and production. C-repeat binding factor/Dehydration responsive element-binding 1 protein (CBF/DREB1), containing conserved APETALA2 (AP2) DNA binding domains and two characteristic sequences, are key signaling genes that can be rapidly induced and play vital roles in plant response to low temperature. However, the CBF family has not been systematically elucidated in cucumber, and the expression pattern of this family genes under cold stress remains unclear. RESULTS: In this study, three CsCBF family genes were identified in cucumber genome and their protein conserved domain, protein physicochemical properties, gene structure and phylogenetic analysis were further comprehensively analyzed. Subcellular localization showed that all three CsCBFs were localized in the nucleus. Cis-element analysis of the promoters indicated that CsCBFs might be involved in plant hormone response and abiotic stress response. Expression analysis showed that the three CsCBFs could be significantly induced by cold stress, salt and ABA. The overexpression of CsCBFs in cucumber seedlings enhanced the tolerance to cold stress, and importantly, the transcript levels of CsCOR genes were significantly upregulated in 35S:CsCBFs transgenic plants after cold stress treatment. Biochemical analyses ascertained that CsCBFs directly activated CsCOR genes expression by binding to its promoter, thereby enhancing plant resistance to cold stress. CONCLUSION: This study provided a foundation for further research on the function of CsCBF genes in cold stress resistance and elucidating its mechanism.
PMID: 35655135
BMC Plant Biol , IF:4.215 , 2022 Jun , V22 (1) : P271 doi: 10.1186/s12870-022-03663-0
Overexpression of grape ABA receptor gene VaPYL4 enhances tolerance to multiple abiotic stresses in Arabidopsis.
Beijing Key Laboratory of Grape Sciences and Enology, Key Laboratory of Plant Resource, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanxin Village 20, Xiangshan, Haidian District, Beijing, 100093, People's Republic of China.; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, People's Republic of China.; Beijing Key Laboratory of Grape Sciences and Enology, Key Laboratory of Plant Resource, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanxin Village 20, Xiangshan, Haidian District, Beijing, 100093, People's Republic of China. zl249@ibcas.ac.cn.
BACKGROUND: Abscisic acid (ABA) plays a crucial role in abiotic stress responses. The pyrabactin resistance (PYR)/PYR-like (PYL)/regulatory component of ABA receptor (RCAR) proteins that have been characterized as ABA receptors function as the core components in ABA signaling pathway. However, the functions of grape PYL genes in response to different abiotic stresses, particularly cold stress, remain less studied. RESULTS: In this study, we investigated the expression profiles of grape PYL genes upon cold treatment and isolated the VaPYL4 gene from Vitis amurensis, a cold-hardy grape species. Overexpression of VaPYL4 gene in grape calli and Arabidopsis resulted in enhanced cold tolerance. Moreover, plant resistance to drought and salt stress was also improved by overexpressing VaPYL4 in Arabidopsis. More importantly, we evaluated the contribution of VaPYL4 to plant growth and development after the treatment with cold, salt and drought stress simultaneously. The transgenic plants showed higher survival rates, earlier flowering phenotype, and heavier fresh weight of seedlings and siliques when compared with wild-type plants. Physiological analyses showed that transgenic plants had much lower content of malondialdehyde (MDA) and higher peroxidase (POD) activity. Stress-responsive genes such as RD29A (Responsive to desiccation 29A), COR15A (Cold responsive 15A) and KIN2 (Kinase 2) were also significantly up-regulated in VaPYL4-overexpressing Arabidopsis plants. CONCLUSIONS: Our results show that overexpression of VaPYL4 could improve plant performance upon different abiotic stresses, which therefore provides a useful strategy for engineering future crops to deal with adverse environments.
PMID: 35655129
Tree Physiol , IF:4.196 , 2022 Jun doi: 10.1093/treephys/tpac064
Histological, metabolomic, and transcriptomic analyses reveal mechanisms of cold acclimation of Moso bamboo (Phyllostachys edulis) leaf.
Co-Innovation Center for Sustainable Forestry in Southern China, Nanjing Forestry University, 159 Longpan Road Nanjing, Jiangsu 210037, China.; International Education College, Nanjing Forestry University, 159 Longpan Road Nanjing, Jiangsu 210037, China.; College of Biology and the Environment, Nanjing Forestry University, 159 Longpan Road Nanjing, Jiangsu 210037, China.; Jiangxi Provincial Key Laboratory for Bamboo Germplasm Resources and Utilization, Jiangxi Agriculture University, College of Forestry, 1101 Zhimin Road, Nanchang, Jiangxi 330045, China.; Bamboo Research Institute, Nanjing Forestry University, 159 Longpan Road Nanjing, Jiangsu 210037, China.
Moso bamboo leaf copes well with the cold winter in southeastern China. However, until now, there has been almost no work reporting on its adaptation mechanisms to cold weather. Herein, we found that Moso bamboo leaf has evolved several anatomical structures that may play a role in enhancing its cold tolerance. These structures include fewer fusiform cells, smaller bulliform cells, lower stomata density, and many more trichomes, as well as lower relative water content than in the leaf of a cold-sensitive bamboo species, Bambusa ventricosa. Untargeted metabolomic analysis revealed that the winter leaf of Moso bamboo had ten- to thousand-fold higher stress-resistant metabolites such as glutathione, trehalose and ascorbic acid than the leaf of B. verntricosa on both warm and cold days. In contrast to the leaves that grew on a warm day, some metabolites such as glutathione and trehalose increased dramatically in the leaves of Moso bamboo that grew on a cold day. However, they unexpectedly decreased in the leaf of B. ventricosa growing at cold temperatures. Transcriptome analysis revealed a cold stress response network that includes trehalose, glutathione, flavonoid metabolism, DNA repair, reactive oxygen species degradation, stress-associated genes, and abiotic stress-related plant hormones such as jasmonic acid, abscisic acid, and ethylene. The potential mediator transcription factors such as EREBP, HSF, MYB, NAC, and WRYK were also found to be significantly upregulated in Moso bamboo leaves growing at cold temperatures. Interestingly, a large number of newly identified genes were found to be involved in the transcriptome of the winter leaf of Moso bamboo. Most of these new genes have not even been annotated yet. The above results indicate that the Moso bamboo leaf has evolved special histological structures, metabolic pathways, and a cold stress tolerant transcriptome to adapt to the cold weather in its distribution areas.
PMID: 35723499
Genes (Basel) , IF:4.096 , 2022 Jun , V13 (7) doi: 10.3390/genes13071119
Integrated sRNA-seq and RNA-seq Analyses Reveal a microRNA Regulation Network Involved in Cold Response in Pisum sativum L.
BioEcoAgro Joint Research Unit, Universite de Lille, INRAE, Universite de Liege, Universite de Picardie Jules Verne, 59000 Lille, France.; BioEcoAgro Joint Research Unit, INRAE, Universite de Lille, Universite de Liege, Universite de Picardie Jules Verne, 80200 Estrees-Mons, France.; Universite Paris-Saclay, AgroParisTech, INRAE, GABI, 78350 Jouy-en-Josas, France.; Univ. Lille, CNRS, UMR 8198-Evo-Eco-Paleo, 59000 Lille, France.
(1) Background: Cold stress affects growth and development in plants and is a major environmental factor that decreases productivity. Over the past two decades, the advent of next generation sequencing (NGS) technologies has opened new opportunities to understand the molecular bases of stress resistance by enabling the detection of weakly expressed transcripts and the identification of regulatory RNAs of gene expression, including microRNAs (miRNAs). (2) Methods: In this study, we performed time series sRNA and mRNA sequencing experiments on two pea (Pisum sativum L., Ps) lines, Champagne frost-tolerant and Terese frost-sensitive, during a low temperature treatment versus a control condition. (3) Results: An integrative analysis led to the identification of 136 miRNAs and a regulation network composed of 39 miRNA/mRNA target pairs with discordant expression patterns. (4) Conclusions: Our findings indicate that the cold response in pea involves 11 miRNA families as well as their target genes related to antioxidative and multi-stress defense mechanisms and cell wall biosynthesis.
PMID: 35885902
Plant Genome , IF:4.089 , 2022 Jul : Pe20229 doi: 10.1002/tpg2.20229
Identifying and expression analysis of WD40 transcription factors in walnut.
Laboratory of Walnut Research Center, College of Forestry, Northwest A & F Univ., Yangling, Shaanxi, 712100, China.; Key Laboratory of Economic Plant Resources Development and Utilization in Shaanxi Province, College of Forestry, Northwest A & F Univ., Yangling, Shaanxi, 712100, China.; College of Forestry, Northwest A & F Univ., Yangling, Shaanxi, 712100, China.
Walnut (Juglans regia L.) is an important woody oil plant and will be affected by abiotic and biological stress during its growth and development. The WD-repeat (WD40) protein is widely involved in plant growth, development, metabolism, and abiotic stress response. To explore the stress response mechanism of walnut, based on the complete sequencing results of the walnut genome, this study identified and analyzed the physiological, biochemical, genetic structure, and conservative protein motifs of 42 JrWD40 genes, whose expression to abnormal temperature were tested to predict the potential biological function. The results showed that the open reading frame (ORF) of theseWD40 genes were 807-2,460 bp, encoding peptides were 29,610.55-90,387.98 Da covering 268-819 amino acids, as well as 12-112 phosphorylation sites. JrWD40 proteins were highly conserved with four to five WD40 domains and shared certain similarity to WD40 proteins from Arabidopsis thaliana (L.) Heynh. JrWD40 genes can be induced to varying degrees by low and high temperature treatments. JrWD40-32, JrWD40-27, JrWD40-35, and JrWD40-21 are affected by high temperature more seriously and their expression levels are higher; while JrWD40-37, JrWD40-26, JrWD40-20, JrWD40-24, and other genes are inhibited under low temperature stress. JrWD40-40, JrWD40-28, and JrWD40-18 were first suppressed with low expression, while as the treatment time prolonging, the expression level was increased under cold condition. JrWD40-14, JrWD40-18, JrWD40-34, and JrWD40-3 displayed strong transcriptions response to both heat and cold stress. These results indicated that JrWD40 genes can participate in walnut adaptation to adversity and can be used as important candidates for walnut resistance molecular breeding.
PMID: 35904050
BMC Genomics , IF:3.969 , 2022 Jul , V23 (1) : P516 doi: 10.1186/s12864-022-08751-x
Computational analysis of potential candidate genes involved in the cold stress response of ten Rosaceae members.
National Centre for Biological Sciences (TIFR), GKVK Campus, Bangalore, Karnataka, 560065, India.; The University of Trans-Disciplinary Health Sciences & Technology (TDU), Yelahanka, Bangalore, Karnataka, 560064, India.; National Centre for Biological Sciences (TIFR), GKVK Campus, Bangalore, Karnataka, 560065, India. mini@ncbs.res.in.; Molecular BIophysics Unit, Indian Institute of Science, 560012, Bangalore, India. mini@ncbs.res.in.
BACKGROUND: Plant species from Rosaceae family are economically important. One of the major environmental factors impacting those species is cold stress. Although several Rosaceae plant genomes have recently been sequenced, there have been very few research conducted on cold upregulated genes and their promoter binding sites. In this study, we used computational approaches to identify and analyse potential cold stress response genes across ten Rosaceae family members. RESULTS: Cold stress upregulated gene data from apple and strawberry were used to identify syntelogs in other Rosaceae species. Gene duplication analysis was carried out to better understand the distribution of these syntelog genes in different Rosaceae members. A total of 11,145 popular abiotic stress transcription factor-binding sites were identified in the upstream region of these potential cold-responsive genes, which were subsequently categorised into distinct transcription factor (TF) classes. MYB classes of transcription factor binding site (TFBS) were abundant, followed by bHLH, WRKY, and AP2/ERF. TFBS patterns in the promoter regions were compared among these species and gene families, found to be quite different even amongst functionally related syntelogs. A case study on important cold stress responsive transcription factor family, AP2/ERF showed less conservation in TFBS patterns in the promoter regions. This indicates that syntelogs from the same group may be comparable at the gene level but not at the level of cis-regulatory elements. Therefore, for such genes from the same family, different repertoire of TFs could be recruited for regulation and expression. Duplication events must have played a significant role in the similarity of TFBS patterns amongst few syntelogs of closely related species. CONCLUSIONS: Our study overall suggests that, despite being from the same gene family, different combinations of TFs may play a role in their regulation and expression. The findings of this study will provide information about potential genes involved in the cold stress response, which will aid future functional research of these gene families involved in many important biological processes.
PMID: 35842574
Plants (Basel) , IF:3.935 , 2022 Jul , V11 (14) doi: 10.3390/plants11141881
Understanding and Comprehensive Evaluation of Cold Resistance in the Seedlings of Multiple Maize Genotypes.
State Key Laboratory of Aridland Crop Science, Gansu Agricultural University, Lanzhou 730070, China.; United States Department of Agriculture, Fargo, ND 58102-2765, USA.
Maize is a cold-sensitive crop, and it exhibits severe retardation of growth and development when exposed to cold snaps during and right after seedling emergence. Although different agronomic, physiological, and molecular approaches have been tried to overcome the problems related to cold stress in recent years, the mechanisms causing cold resistance in maize are still unclear. Screening and breeding of varieties for cold resistance may be a sustainable option to boost maize production under low-temperature environments. Herein, seedlings of 39 different maize genotypes were treated under both 10 degrees C low temperature and 22 degrees C normal temperature conditions for 7 days, to assess the changes in seven growth parameters, two membrane characteristics, two reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels, and four antioxidant enzymes activities. The changes in ten photosynthetic performances, one osmotic substance accumulation, and three polyamines (PAs) metabolisms were also measured. Results indicated that significant differences among genotypes, temperature treatments, and their interactions were found in 29 studied traits, and cold-stressed seedlings were capable to enhance their cold resistance by maintaining high levels of membrane stability index (66.07%); antioxidant enzymes activities including the activity of superoxide dismutase (2.44 Unit g(-1) protein), peroxidase (1.65 Unit g(-1) protein), catalase (0.65 muM min(-1) g(-1) protein), and ascorbate peroxidase (5.45 muM min(-1) g(-1) protein); chlorophyll (Chl) content, i.e., Chl a (0.36 mg g(-1) FW) and Chl b (0.40 mg g(-1) FW); photosynthetic capacity such as net photosynthetic rate (5.52 muM m(-2) s(-1)) and ribulose 1,5-biphosphate carboxylase activity (6.57 M m(-2) s(-1)); PAs concentration, mainly putrescine (274.89 nM g(-1) FW), spermidine (52.69 nM g(-1) FW), and spermine (45.81 nM g(-1) FW), particularly under extended cold stress. Importantly, 16 traits can be good indicators for screening of cold-resistant genotypes of maize. Gene expression analysis showed that GRMZM2G059991, GRMZM2G089982, GRMZM2G088212, GRMZM2G396553, GRMZM2G120578, and GRMZM2G396856 involved in antioxidant enzymes activity and PAs metabolism, and these genes may be used for genetic modification to improve maize cold resistance. Moreover, seven strong cold-resistant genotypes were identified, and they can be used as parents in maize breeding programs to develop new varieties.
PMID: 35890515
Plants (Basel) , IF:3.935 , 2022 Jul , V11 (13) doi: 10.3390/plants11131761
Potential Distribution of and Sensitivity Analysis for Urochloa panicoides Weed Using Modeling: An Implication of Invasion Risk Analysis for China and Europe.
Departamento de Agronomia, Universidade Federal dos Vales do Jequitinhonha e Mucuri, Diamantina CEP 39100-000, MG, Brazil.; Departamento de Agronomia e Ciencias Vegetais, Universidade Federal Rural do Semi-Arido, Mossoro CEP 59625-900, RN, Brazil.
Urochloapanicoides P. Beauv. is considered one of the most harmful weeds in the United States and Australia. It is invasive in Pakistan, Mexico, and Brazil, but its occurrence is hardly reported in China and European countries. Species distribution models enable the measurement of the impact of climate change on plant growth, allowing for risk analysis, effective management, and invasion prevention. The objective of this study was to develop current and future climate models of suitable locations for U. panicoides and to determine the most influential climatic parameters. Occurrence data and biological information on U. panicoides were collected, and climatic parameters were used to generate the Ecoclimatic Index (EI) and to perform sensitivity analysis. The future projections for 2050, 2080, and 2100 were modeled under the A2 SRES scenario using the Global Climate Model, CSIRO-Mk3.0 (CS). The potential distribution of U. panicoides coincided with the data collected, and the reliability of the final model was demonstrated. The generated model identified regions where the occurrence was favorable, despite few records of the species. Sensitivity analysis showed that the most sensitive parameters of the model were related to temperature, humidity, and cold stress. Future projections predict reductions in climate suitability for U. panicoides in Brazil, Australia, India, and Africa, and an increase in suitability in Mexico, the United States, European countries, and China. The rise in suitability of China and Europe is attributed to predicted climate change, including reduction in cold stress. From the results obtained, preventive management strategies can be formulated against the spread of U. panicoides, avoiding economic and biodiversity losses.
PMID: 35807713
Life (Basel) , IF:3.817 , 2022 Jun , V12 (6) doi: 10.3390/life12060833
Unearthing the Alleviatory Mechanisms of Brassinolide in Cold Stress in Rice.
State Key Laboratory of Rice Biology, China National Rice Research Institute, Hangzhou 310006, China.; School of Resources and Environmental Engineering, Anhui University, Hefei 230039, China.; College of Life Sciences and Technology, Mudanjiang Normal University, Mudanjiang 230039, China.
Cold stress inhibits rice germination and seedling growth. Brassinolide (BR) plays key roles in plant growth, development, and stress responses. In this study, we explored the underlying mechanisms whereby BR helps alleviate cold stress in rice seedlings. BR application to the growth medium significantly increased seed germination and seedling growth of the early rice cultivar "Zhongzao 39" after three days of cold treatment. Specifically, BR significantly increased soluble protein and soluble sugar contents after three days of cold treatment. Moreover, BR stimulated the activity of superoxide dismutase, catalase, peroxidase, and ascorbate peroxidase; thereby alleviating cold-induced damage and increasing glutathione content and the GSH/GSSG ratio while concomitantly reducing H2O2 content. BR upregulated the expression levels of cold-response-related genes, including OsICE1, OsFer1, OsCOLD1, OsLti6a, OsSODB, OsMyb, and OsTERF2, and downregulated that of OsWRKY45, overall alleviating cold stress symptoms. Thus, BR not only upregulated cellular osmotic content and the antioxidant enzyme system to maintain the physiological balance of reactive oxygen species under cold but, additionally, it regulated the expression of cold-response-related genes to alleviate cold stress symptoms. These results provide a theoretical basis for rice breeding for cold resistance using young seedlings.
PMID: 35743864
Int J Biometeorol , IF:3.787 , 2022 Jul doi: 10.1007/s00484-022-02339-6
Expression profiling of HSP 70 and interleukins 2, 6 and 12 genes of Barki sheep during summer and winter seasons in two different locations.
Department of Animal and Fish Production, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Alexandria, Alexandria, 21545, Egypt.; Department of Livestock Research, Arid Lands Cultivation Research Institute, City for Scientific Research and Technology Applications, New Borg El-Arab, Alexandria, 21934, Egypt.; Faculty of Desert and Environmental Agriculture, Matrouh University, Matrouh, Egypt.; Plant Protection and Biomolecular Diagnosis Department, City of Scientific Research and Technology Applications, Arid Lands Cultivation Research Institute, New Borg El-Arab City, Alexandria, 21934, Egypt.; Department of Animal and Fish Production, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Alexandria, Alexandria, 21545, Egypt. mmisalem@gmail.com.
The objectives of this research were to contrast the expression values of heat shock protein (HSP70) and interleukins 2, 6 and 12 (IL 2, IL 6 and IL 12) genes in summer and winter in two different locations in Egypt (Alexandria zone and Matrouh zone) to deduce changes in thermo-physiological traits and biochemical blood metabolites of Barki sheep. A total of 50 ewes (20 in Alexandria and 30 in Matrouh) were individually blood sampled to determine plasma total protein (TP), Albumin, Globulin and Glucose constituents and T3, T4 and cortisol hormones. The thermo-physiological parameters of rectal temperature (RT, degrees C), skin temperature (ST, degrees C), Wool temperature (WT, degrees C), respiration rate (RR, breaths/min) and pulse rate (PR, beats/min) were measured for each ewe. Expressions of IL 2, IL 6, IL 12 and HSP 70 in summer and winter were analyzed along with thermo-physiological parameters and blood biochemical metabolites. In both locations, THI had significant effects on ST, WT, PR and RR, but not significant on RT. However, it had no significant effects on blood plasma metabolites and hormonal concentrations in the two locations in summer and winter. In Alexandria location, THI had negative significant effect on the expressions of IL-2 and IL-6 but positively affected on HSP70 genes in winter, while the expression of IL-12 gene was not affected by seasons, whereas in Matrouh zone, the effects of THI on the expressions of all tolerance genes were not significant. The results of the current study suggest that IL-2, IL-6 and HSP70 genes could be used as molecular markers for heat/cold stress.
PMID: 35882644
Gene , IF:3.688 , 2022 Aug , V837 : P146690 doi: 10.1016/j.gene.2022.146690
Genome-wide identification of cold-tolerance genes and functional analysis of IbbHLH116 gene in sweet potato.
Research Center of Crop Stresses Resistance Technologies/ Engineering Research Centre of Ecology and Agricultural Use of Wetland, Ministry of Education, Yangtze University, Jingzhou 434025, China.; Agronomy Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Assiut University, 71526 Assiut, Egypt.; Research Center of Crop Stresses Resistance Technologies/ Engineering Research Centre of Ecology and Agricultural Use of Wetland, Ministry of Education, Yangtze University, Jingzhou 434025, China; Hubei Sweet potato Engineering and Technology Research Centre, Hubei Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Wuhan 430064, China.; Hubei Sweet potato Engineering and Technology Research Centre, Hubei Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Wuhan 430064, China.; Research Center of Crop Stresses Resistance Technologies/ Engineering Research Centre of Ecology and Agricultural Use of Wetland, Ministry of Education, Yangtze University, Jingzhou 434025, China. Electronic address: wyzhang@yangtzeu.edu.cn.
Sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas L.) originated from South America; therefore, it is vulnerable to low temperature. Here, the evolutionary analysis of 22 cold-responsive genes in 35 plant species revealed that the identified MYC-type basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) transcription factors exhibit diverse structures. We found that the number of bHLH gene family members was significantly lower than that of cold-tolerant species. We further systematically evaluated the gene structure, promoter analysis, synteny analysis, and expression pattern of 28 bHLH gene family members in sweet potato. The basic helix-loop-helix protein 116 (IbbHLH116) has the closest phylogeny to the AtICE1 protein of A. thaliana. However, the IbbHLH116 protein from cold-tolerant variety FS18 showed a 37.90% of sequence homology with AtICE1 protein. Subcellular localization analysis showed that IbbHLH116 is localized in the nucleus. The transcripts of IbbHLH116 were highly accumulated in cold-tolerant genotype FS18, particularly in new leaves and stems, compared to the cold-sensitive genotype NC1 under cold stress. Overexpression of IbbHLH116 in the wild type (Col-0) A. thaliana significantly enhanced cold tolerance in transgenic plants by regulating activities of oxidative protective enzymes, such as peroxidase (POD), superoxide dismutase (SOD), and the contents of malondialdehyde (MDA), proline and soluble proteins. Moreover, overexpression of IbbHLH116 in ice1 mutant A. thaliana fully rescued the cold-sensitive phenotype by promoting the expression of C-repeat binding factors 3 (CBF3). Overexpression of IbbHLH116 in the sweet potato callus also induced the expression of CBF3 under low temperature. These results imply that IbbHLH116 can perform the function of the ICE1 gene in conferring cold tolerance in sweet potato.
PMID: 35738441
Gene , IF:3.688 , 2022 Jul , V830 : P146503 doi: 10.1016/j.gene.2022.146503
Full length transcriptomes analysis of cold-resistance of Apis cerana in Changbai Mountain during overwintering period.
Institute of Special Animal and Plant Sciences of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Changchun, Jilin 130112, PR China; Apiculture Science Institute of Jilin Province, Jilin, Jilin 132108, PR China. Electronic address: liunannan7@163.com.; Jilin Institute of Chemical Technology, Jilin, Jilin 132022, PR China.; Jilin Provincial Animal Husbandry General Station, Changchun, Jilin 130699, PR China.; Apiculture Science Institute of Jilin Province, Jilin, Jilin 132108, PR China.; Apiculture Science Institute of Jilin Province, Jilin, Jilin 132108, PR China. Electronic address: 1463199779@qq.com.; Institute of Special Animal and Plant Sciences of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Changchun, Jilin 130112, PR China. Electronic address: xingxiumei2004@126.com.
Apis cerana in Changbai Mountain is an ecological type of Apis cerana, which is an excellent breeding material with cold-resistant developed by long-term natural selection under the ecological conditions. However, the physiological and molecular mechanisms of Changbai Mountain population under cold stress are still unclear. In this study, the Nanopore sequencing was carried out for the transcriptome of Apis cerana in Changbai Mountain in the coldest period of overwintering, which will provide a reference to the cold-resistant mechanism. We determined 5,941 complete ORF sequences, 1,193 lncRNAs, 619 TFs, 10,866 SSRs and functional annotations of 11,599 new transcripts. Our results showed that the myosin family and the C2H2 zinc finger protein transcription factor family possibly have significant impacts on the response mechanism of cold stress during overwintering. In addition, the cold environment alters genes expression profiles in honeybees via different AS and APA mechanisms. These altered genes in Hippo, Foxo, and MARK pathways help them counter the stress of cold in overwinter period. Our results might provide clues about the response of eastern honeybees to extreme cold, and reflect the possible genetic basis of physiological changes.
PMID: 35487395
J Plant Physiol , IF:3.549 , 2022 Jul , V276 : P153772 doi: 10.1016/j.jplph.2022.153772
Exogenous uniconazole enhances tolerance to chilling stress in mung beans (Vigna radiata L.) through cross talk among photosynthesis, antioxidant system, sucrose metabolism, and hormones.
College of Coastal Agriculture Sciences, Guangdong Ocean University, Zhanjiang, Guangdong, 524088, China; College of Agriculture, Heilongjiang Bayi Agricultural University, Daqing, Heilongjiang, 163319, China.; College of Coastal Agriculture Sciences, Guangdong Ocean University, Zhanjiang, Guangdong, 524088, China; Shenzhen Reseach Institute of Guangdong Ocean University, Shenzhen, Guangdong, 518108, China.; College of Coastal Agriculture Sciences, Guangdong Ocean University, Zhanjiang, Guangdong, 524088, China; Shenzhen Reseach Institute of Guangdong Ocean University, Shenzhen, Guangdong, 518108, China. Electronic address: zhengdf@gdou.edu.cn.; College of Agriculture, Heilongjiang Bayi Agricultural University, Daqing, Heilongjiang, 163319, China.
To monitor the role of exogenous uniconazole in mitigating chilling stress, this study investigated the effect of foliar spraying of 50 mg L(-1) uniconazole on the chilling (15 degrees C) tolerance of mung beans at the flowering stage. The results showed that uniconazole significantly enhanced the reactive oxygen species (ROS) scavenging ability of mung beans by increasing the superoxide dismutase (SOD), peroxidase (POD), ascorbate peroxidase (APX), glutathione reductase (GR) activities, the contents of ascorbic acid (AsA) and glutathione (GSH), and the transcription levels of SOD and POD under chilling stress. The uniconazole applications also drastically increased the net photosynthetic rate (Pn), maximum net photosynthetic rate (Pnmax), maximum quantum yield of PSII (Fv/Fm), and the expression levels of the corresponding photosynthetic genes PsbO, PsbP, PsbQ, PsbY, and Psb28. This, in turn, resulted in a higher sucrose content. Meanwhile, uniconazole increased the indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) content but reduced the gibberellin A3 (GA3) content under chilling stress. During the recovery period, the photosynthetic parameters and ROS of plants receiving uniconazole recovered faster, and the antioxidant activity and non-antioxidant contents were higher than in chilling-treated plants. Additionally, chilling stress markedly reduced the pod number per plant, grain number per plant, and 100-seed weight, whereas uniconazole significantly increased the grain weight per plant by 53.47% compared to the chilling treatment. These results strongly suggest that uniconazole can effectively protect mung beans from chilling stress damage by protecting the photosynthetic machinery and enhancing the antioxidant capacity to quench excessive ROS caused by chilling stress. These effects are closely relevant to chilling tolerance enhancement and yield improvement in mung beans.
PMID: 35872423
Fungal Genet Biol , IF:3.495 , 2022 Jul , V161 : P103698 doi: 10.1016/j.fgb.2022.103698
Annotation survey and life cycle transcriptomics of transcription factors in rust fungi (Pucciniales) identify a possible role for cold shock proteins in dormancy exit.
Universite de Lorraine, INRAE, IAM, F-54000 Nancy, France.; School of biological Sciences, University of Portsmouth, King Henry 1 Street, PO1 D2Y Portsmouth, United Kingdom.; US Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA.; US Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA; Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA.; Universite de Lorraine, INRAE, IAM, F-54000 Nancy, France. Electronic address: sebastien.duplessis@inrae.fr.
Fungi of the order Pucciniales are obligate plant biotrophs causing rust diseases. They exhibit a complex life cycle with the production of up to five spore types, infection of two unrelated hosts and an overwintering stage. Transcription factors (TFs) are key regulators of gene expression in eukaryote cells. In order to better understand genetic programs expressed during major transitions of the rust life cycle, we surveyed the complement of TFs in fungal genomes with an emphasis on Pucciniales. We found that despite their large gene numbers, rust genomes have a reduced repertoire of TFs compared to other fungi. The proportions of C2H2 and Zinc cluster - two of the most represented TF families in fungi - indicate differences in their evolutionary relationships in Pucciniales and other fungal taxa. The regulatory gene family encoding cold shock protein (CSP) showed a striking expansion in Pucciniomycotina with specific duplications in the order Pucciniales. The survey of expression profiles collected by transcriptomics along the life cycle of the poplar rust fungus revealed TF genes related to major biological transitions, e.g. response to environmental cues and host infection. Particularly, poplar rust CSPs were strongly expressed in basidia produced after the overwintering stage suggesting a possible role in dormancy exit. Expression during transition from dormant telia to basidia confirmed the specific expression of the three poplar rust CSP genes. Their heterologous expression in yeast improved cell growth after cold stress exposure, suggesting a probable regulatory function when the poplar rust fungus exits dormancy. This study addresses for the first time TF and regulatory genes involved in developmental transition in the rust life cycle opening perspectives to further explore molecular regulation in the biology of the Pucciniales.
PMID: 35483517
Biomed Res Int , IF:3.411 , 2022 , V2022 : P9247169 doi: 10.1155/2022/9247169
A De Novo Transcriptome Analysis Identifies Cold-Responsive Genes in the Seeds of Taxillus chinensis (DC.) Danser.
Guangxi Botanical Garden of Medicinal Plants, Nanning 530023, China.; Guangxi Key Laboratory for High-Quality Formation and Utilization of Dao-di Herbs, China.
Taxillus chinensis (DC.) Danser, a parasitic plant of the Loranthaceae family, grows by attacking other plants. It has a long history of being used in Chinese medicine to treat multiple chronic diseases. We previously observed that T. chinensis seeds are sensitive to cold. In this study, we performed transcriptome sequencing for T. chinensis seeds treated by cold (0 degrees C) for 0 h, 12 h, 24 h, and 36 h. TRINITY assembled 257,870 transcripts from 223,512 genes. The GC content and N50 were calculated as 42.29% and 1,368, respectively. Then, we identified 42,183 CDSs and 35,268 likely proteins in the assembled transcriptome, which contained 1,622 signal peptides and 6,795 transmembrane domains. Next, we identified 17,217 genes (FPKM > 5) and 2,333 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in T. chinensis seeds under cold stress. The MAPK pathway, as an early cold response, was significantly enriched by the DEGs in the T. chinensis seeds after 24 h of cold treatment. Known cold-responsive genes encoding abscisic acid-associated, aquaporin, C-repeat binding factor (CBF), cold-regulated protein, heat shock protein, protein kinase, ribosomal protein, transcription factor (TF), zinc finger protein, and ubiquitin were deregulated in the T. chinensis seeds under cold stress. Notably, the upregulation of CBF gene might be the consequences of the downregulation of MYB and GATA TFs. Additionally, we identified that genes encoding CDC20, YLS9, EXORDIUM, and AUX1 and wound-responsive family protein might be related to novel mechanisms of T. chinensis seeds exposed to cold. This study is first to report the differential transcriptional induction in T. chinensis seeds under cold stress. It will improve our understanding of parasitic plants in response to cold and provide a valuable resource for future studies.
PMID: 35845948
J Appl Genet , IF:3.24 , 2022 Jul doi: 10.1007/s13353-022-00710-2
The genetic basis of cold tolerance in cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.)-the latest developments and perspectives.
Department of Plant Genetics Breeding and Biotechnology, Institute of Biology, Warsaw University of Life Sciences, Nowoursynowska 159, Warsaw, Poland.; Department of Plant Genetics Breeding and Biotechnology, Institute of Biology, Warsaw University of Life Sciences, Nowoursynowska 159, Warsaw, Poland. grzegorz_bartoszewski@sggw.edu.pl.
Cold stress is one of the main causes of yield losses in plant production in temperate climate areas. Cold stress slows down and even stops plant growth and development and causes injuries that may result in the plant's death. Cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.), an economically important vegetable, is sensitive to low temperatures, thus improving cold tolerance in cucumber would benefit cucumber producers, particularly those farming in temperate climates and higher altitude areas. So far, single cucumber accessions showing different degrees of cold tolerance have been identified, and genetic studies have revealed biparentally and maternally inherited genetic factors responsible for chilling tolerance. Paternally transmitted chilling tolerance has also been suggested. Quantitative trait loci (QTL) associated with seed germination ability at low temperature and seedling recovery from chilling have been described. Several transgenic attempts have been made to improve cold tolerance in cucumber. Despite numerous studies, the molecular mechanisms of cold tolerance in cucumber have still not been sufficiently elucidated. In this review, we summarise the results of research focused on understanding the genetic basis of cold tolerance in cucumber and their implications for cucumber breeding.
PMID: 35838983
Funct Plant Biol , IF:3.101 , 2022 Jul doi: 10.1071/FP22043
Parental drought priming enhances tolerance to low temperature in wheat (Triticum aestivum) offspring.
Low temperature is one of the major environmental stresses that limit crop growth and grain yield in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.). Drought priming at the vegetative stage could enhance wheat tolerance to later cold stress; however, the transgenerational effects of drought priming on wheat offspring's cold stress tolerance remains unclear. Here, the low temperature responses of offspring were tested after the parental drought priming treatment at grain filling stage. The offspring plants from parental drought priming treatment had a higher abscisic acid (ABA) level and lower osmotic potential (Psio) than the control plants under cold conditions. Moreover, parental drought priming increased the antioxidant enzyme activities and decreased hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) accumulation in offspring. In comparison to control plants, parental drought priming plants had a higher ATP concentration and higher activities of ATPase and the enzymes involved in sucrose biosynthesis and starch metabolism. The results indicated that parental drought priming induced low temperature tolerance in offspring by regulating endogenous ABA levels and maintaining the redox homeostasis and the balance of carbohydrate metabolism, which provided a potential approach for cold resistant cultivation in wheat.
PMID: 35871526
Funct Plant Biol , IF:3.101 , 2022 Jul doi: 10.1071/FP21290
Identifying conserved genes involved in crop tolerance to cold stress.
Low temperature is a limiting factor for crop productivity in tropical and subtropical climates. Cold stress response in plants involves perceiving and relaying the signal through a transcriptional cascade composed of different transduction components, resulting in altered gene activity. We performed a meta-analysis of four previously published datasets of cold-tolerant and cold-sensitive crops to better understand the gene regulatory networks and identify key genes involved in cold stress tolerance conserved across phylogenetically distant species. Re-analysing the raw data with the same bioinformatics pipeline, we identified common cold tolerance-related genes. We found 236 and 242 commonly regulated genes in sensitive and tolerant genotypes, respectively. Gene enrichment analysis showed that protein modifications, hormone metabolism, cell wall, and secondary metabolism are the most conserved pathways involved in cold tolerance. Upregulation of the abiotic stress (heat and drought/salt) related genes [heat shock N-terminal domain-containing protein, 15.7kDa class I-related small heat shock protein-like, DNAJ heat shock N-terminal domain-containing protein, and HYP1 (HYPOTHETICAL PROTEIN 1)] in sensitive genotypes and downregulation of the abiotic stress (heat and drought/salt) related genes (zinc ion binding and pollen Ole e 1 allergen and extensin family protein) in tolerant genotypes was observed across the species. Almost all development-related genes were upregulated in tolerant and downregulated in sensitive genotypes. Moreover, protein-protein network analysis identified highly interacting proteins linked to cold tolerance. Mapping of abiotic stress-related genes on analysed species genomes provided information that could be essential to developing molecular markers for breeding and building up genetic improvement strategies using CRISPR/Cas9 technologies.
PMID: 35785800
Funct Plant Biol , IF:3.101 , 2022 Jul , V49 (8) : P704-724 doi: 10.1071/FP21230
Meta-analysis of transcriptomic responses to cold stress in plants.
Department of Biology, University of Florence, Firenze, Italy.; Department of Horticultural Science, Bu-Ali Sina University, Hamedan, Iran.; Department of Agriculture, Food, Environment and Forestry (DAGRI), University of Florence, Firenze, Italy.; Department of Horticultural Sciences, Faculty of Agriculture and Natural Resources, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran.
Transcriptomic analyses are needful tools to gain insight into the molecular mechanisms underlying plant responses to abiotic stresses. The aim of this study was to identify key genes differentially regulated in response to chilling stress in various plant species with different levels of tolerance to low temperatures. A meta-analysis was performed using the RNA-Seq data of published studies whose experimental conditions were comparable. The results confirmed the importance of ethylene in the hormonal cross-talk modulating the defensive responses against chilling stress, especially in sensitive species. The transcriptomic activity of five Ethylene Response Factors genes and a REDOX Responsive Transcription Factor 1 involved in hormone-related pathways belonging to ethylene metabolism and signal transduction were induced. Transcription activity of two genes encoding for heat shock factors was enhanced, together with various genes associated with developmental processes. Several transcription factor families showed to be commonly induced between different plant species. Protein-protein interaction networks highlighted the role of the photosystems I and II, as well as genes encoding for HSF and WRKY transcription factors. A model of gene regulatory network underlying plant responses to chilling stress was developed, allowing the delivery of new candidate genes for genetic improvement of crops towards low temperatures tolerance.
PMID: 35379384
Funct Plant Biol , IF:3.101 , 2022 Jun doi: 10.1071/FP22005
Feasibility of using melatonin content in pepper (Capsicum annuum) seeds as a physiological marker of chilling stress tolerance.
The presence of melatonin, a known animal hormone, has been confirmed in many evolutionary distant organisms, including higher plants. It is known that melatonin increases tolerance to stress factors as a wide spectrum antioxidant. Tolerant genotypes have generally higher melatonin content than sensitive ones, and exposure to stressful conditions is known to increase endogenous melatonin levels. However, endogenous melatonin levels in seeds have never been used to select genotypes tolerant to abiotic stresses. Thus, in this study, the existence of possible relationship between seed melatonin levels of 28 pepper (Capsicum annuum L.) genotypes and their germination and emergence performance under chilling conditions (15 degrees C) was investigated. The results indicated that these parameters were much better for pepper genotypes with higher seed melatonin contents while those having less than 2ngg-1 additionally exhibited elevated levels of MDA and H2O2 but lower antioxidant enzyme activities. Thus, a positive relationship between seed melatonin content and chilling stress tolerance has been shown, suggesting a possible use of endogenous melatonin levels as a criterion in selecting chilling stress tolerant varieties. To save considerable time, money and labour, it is recommended that genotypes with lower melatonin contents are excluded from breeding programmes that aim to develop new stress tolerant genotypes.
PMID: 35701365
Plant Biol (Stuttg) , IF:3.081 , 2022 Jul doi: 10.1111/plb.13452
Comparative analysis of R2R3-MYB transcription factors in the flower of Iris laevigata identifies a novel gene regulating tobacco cold tolerance.
College of Landscape Architecture, Northeast Forestry University, Harbin, China.; Key Laboratory of Saline-alkali Vegetation Ecology Restoration, Ministry of Education, Northeast Forestry University, Harbin, China.; Department of Biology, Truman State University, Kirksville, MO, USA.
Breeding for flower cold resistance is a priority for flower breeding research in northern China. The identification of cold resistance genes will not only provide genetic resources for cold resistance breeding, but also form a basis for the study of plant cold resistance mechanisms. Based on the flower transcriptome of Iris laevigata, 20 R2R3-MYBs were identified and comprehensive analysis, including conservative domain, phylogenetic analyses and functional distribution, were performed for R2R3-MYBs. Expression patterns of the abiotic stress genes under cold stress were detected, the upregulated gene was genetically transformed into tobacco, and the related physiological indicators of the transgenic tobacco were measured. A novel cold resistance gene, IlMYB306, was obtained. qRT-PCR indicated that IlMYB306 was dramatically induced by cold stress and was significantly upregulated in roots. The free proline content, MDA, SOD and POD activity of the transgenic tobacco improved after cold stress, and the chlorophyll content decreased slowly. In addition, overexpression of IlMYB306 improved cold resistance of the seeds. SEM results showed leaves of transgenic tobacco had obvious folds, more grooves and bulges on the lower leaf surface. Overall, we report a novel cold resistance R2R3-MYB gene, IlMYB306, in the flower of I. laevigata, which could improve tobacco cold stress tolerance by thickening the waxy layer, increasing antioxidant activity and the content of proline.
PMID: 35779251
PeerJ , IF:2.984 , 2022 , V10 : Pe13746 doi: 10.7717/peerj.13746
Genome-wide identification and expression pattern analysis of lipoxygenase gene family in turnip (Brassica rapa L. subsp. rapa).
College of Horticulture, Xinjiang Agricultural University, Urumqi, Xinjiang, China.
Turnip (Brassica rapa L. subsp. rapa) is an important crop with edible and medicinal values, and various stresses, especially salt stress and drought stress, seriously threaten the yield of turnips. LOXs play important roles in regulating plant growth and development, signal transduction, and biotic and abiotic stress responses through secondary metabolites produced by the oxylipin metabolic pathway, and although the turnip genome has been published, however, the role of LOX family genes in various abiotic stress responses has not been systematically studied in turnips. In this study, a total of 15 LOX genes (BrrLOX) were identified in turnip, distributed on six chromosomes. Phylogenetic tree analysis classified these LOX genes into two classes: three 9-LOX proteins and 12 13-LOX type II proteins. Gene duplication analysis showed that tandem and segmental duplication were the main pathways for the expansion of the BrrLOX gene family. The Ka and Ks values of the duplicated genes indicate that the BrrLOX gene underwent strong purifying selection. Further analysis of the cis-acting elements of the promoters suggested that the expression of the BrrLOX gene may be influenced by stress and phytohormones. Transcriptome data analysis showed that 13 BrrLOX genes were expressed at one or more stages of turnip tuber development, suggesting that LOX genes may be involved in the formation of turnip fleshy roots. The qRT-PCR analysis showed that four stresses (salt stress, drought stress, cold stress, and heat stress) and three hormone treatments (methyl jasmonate, salicylic acid, and abscisic acid) affected the expression levels of BrrLOX genes and that different BrrLOX genes responded differently to these stresses. In addition, weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA) of BrrLOX revealed seven co-expression modules, and the genes in these co-expression modules are collectively involved in plant growth and development and stress response processes. Thus, our results provide valuable information for the functional identification and regulatory mechanisms of BrrLOX in turnip growth and development and stress response.
PMID: 35898937
J Plant Res , IF:2.629 , 2022 Jun doi: 10.1007/s10265-022-01404-w
The ability of P700 oxidation in photosystem I reflects chilling stress tolerance in cucumber.
Graduate School of Biostudies, Kyoto University, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto, 606-8502, Japan.; Graduate School of Agriculture, Kobe University, Kobe, Hyogo, Japan.; Graduate School of Agriculture, Kyoto University, Kitashirakawa oiwake-cho, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto, 606-8502, Japan. ifuku.kentaro.2m@kyoto-u.ac.jp.
Low temperature inhibits photosynthesis and negatively affects plant growth. Cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) is a chilling-sensitive plant, and its greenhouse production requires considerable energy during the winter. Therefore, a useful stress marker for selecting chilling-tolerant cucumber cultivars is desirable. In this study, we evaluated chilling-stress damage in different cucumber cultivars by measuring photosynthetic parameters. The majority of cultivars showed decreases in the quantum yield of photosystem (PS) II [Fv/Fm and Y(II)] and the quantity of active PS I (Pm) after chilling stress. In contrast, Y(ND)-the ratio of the oxidized state of PSI reaction center chlorophyll P700 (P700(+))-differed among cultivars and was perfectly inversely correlated with Y(NA)-the ratio of the non-photooxidizable P700. It has been known that P700(+) accumulates under stress conditions and protects plants to suppress the generation of reactive oxygen species. In fact, cultivars unable to induce Y(ND) after chilling stress showed growth retardation with reductions in chlorophyll content and leaf area. Therefore, Y(ND) can be a useful marker to evaluate chilling-stress tolerance in cucumber.
PMID: 35767130
Mol Biol Rep , IF:2.316 , 2022 Aug , V49 (8) : P7347-7358 doi: 10.1007/s11033-022-07527-6
Expression of a Pennisetum glaucum gene DREB2A confers enhanced heat, drought and salinity tolerance in transgenic Arabidopsis.
National Institute for Plant Biotechnology, Pusa Campus, New Delhi, India.; PG School, ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, Pusa Campus, New Delhi, 110012, India.; National Institute for Plant Biotechnology, Pusa Campus, New Delhi, India. jasdeep_kaur64@yahoo.co.in.; PG School, ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, Pusa Campus, New Delhi, 110012, India. jasdeep_kaur64@yahoo.co.in.
BACKGROUND: Pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum) is an essential cereal crop, whose growth and yield are not impacted by abiotic stresses, such as drought, heat, and cold. The DREB transcription factors (TF) are some of the largest groups of TFs in plants and play varied roles in plant stress response and signal transduction. METHODS AND RESULTS: In the present study, PgDREB2A gene encoding a DREB transcription factor in pearl millet was functionally characterized in Arabidopsis. DREB2A proteins contain a conserved domain that binds toethylene responsive element binding factors. Three different T1 transgenic lines overexpressing PgDREB2A gene were identified by Southern blot. Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction exhibited that PgDREB2A could be induced under drought conditions. As compared with the control, PgDREB2A overexpressing transgenic Arabidopsis showed increased rate of seed germination and root growth in transgenic lines under higher concentrations of mannitol, NaCl, ABA, heat and cold stress. Additionally, PgDREB2A transgenic lines showed enhanced durability after rehydration and tolerance to drought and salt stress was augmented with increased proline and reduced MDA build-up and diminishing water loss. CONCLUSIONS: Results from this study suggested that PgDREB2A as a transcription factor may improve endurance to various abiotic stresses and can be employed for developing crops tolerant to abiotic stresses.
PMID: 35666421
Mol Biol Rep , IF:2.316 , 2022 Jul , V49 (7) : P5985-5995 doi: 10.1007/s11033-022-07382-5
Stable reference gene selection for quantitative real-time PCR normalization in passion fruit (Passiflora edulis Sims.).
Co-Innovation Center for Sustainable Forestry in Southern China, Key Laboratory of Forest Genetics and Biotechnology of Ministry of Education, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing, 210037, China.; Institute of Mountain Resources, Guizhou Academy of Science, Guiyang, 550001, China.; Co-Innovation Center for Sustainable Forestry in Southern China, Key Laboratory of Forest Genetics and Biotechnology of Ministry of Education, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing, 210037, China. xum@njfu.edu.cn.
BACKGROUND: Passiflora edulis is a tropical fruit with high nutrient and medicinal values that is widely planted in southern China. However, the molecular biology of P. edulis has not been well studied. There are few reports regarding the choice of reference genes for gene expression studies of passion fruit. METHODS AND RESULTS: By using three algorithms, implemented in geNorm, NormFinder and BestKeeper, we have selected ten candidate reference genes to explore their transcriptional expression stability in various tissues and under cold stress conditions. EF1 and HIS were stably expressed in five tissues. Ts and OTU were stably in vegetative organs. 50 S and Liom were stably in reproductive organs. The transcriptional abundance of EF1 and UBQ was stable in cold-treated and recovery treated leaf samples of P. edulis. In all samples, EF1 and Ts exhibited the highest expression stability. Evaluation of selected genes using simple statistical methods (ANOVA and post hoc analysis). Overall, EF1 emerged as the optimum reference gene for qRT-PCR normalize in P. edulis. In addition, the qRT-PCR analysis revealed that expression of ICE1 increases with the duration of cold treatment. CONCLUSIONS: In this study, we successfully screened stable reference genes from 10 candidates in P. edulis and verified the results by analyzing the expression level of ICE1. The results provide reliable and effective reference genes for future research on gene expression analysis in P. edulis, and lay a foundation for follow-up research on functional genes in P. edulis.
PMID: 35357624
Evol Bioinform Online , IF:1.625 , 2022 , V18 : P11769343221106795 doi: 10.1177/11769343221106795
In Silico Identification and Characterization of B12D Family Proteins in Viridiplantae.
Department of Biology, College of Science and Humanities in Al-Kharj, Prince Sattam bin Abdulaziz University, Al-kharj, Saudi Arabia.
B12D family proteins are transmembrane proteins that contain the B12D domain involved in membrane trafficking. Plants comprise several members of the B12D family, but these members' numbers and specific functions are not determined. This study aims to identify and characterize the members of B12D protein family in plants. Phytozome database was retrieved for B12D proteins from 14 species. The total 66 B12D proteins were analyzed in silico for gene structure, motifs, gene expression, duplication events, and phylogenetics. In general, B12D proteins are between 86 and 98 aa in length, have 2 or 3 exons, and comprise a single transmembrane helix. Motif prediction and multiple sequence alignment show strong conservation among B12D proteins of 11 flowering plants species. Despite that, the phylogenetic tree revealed a distinct cluster of 16 B12D proteins that have high conservation across flowering plants. Motif prediction revealed 41 aa motif conserved in 58 of the analyzed B12D proteins similar to the bZIP motif, confirming that in the predicted biological process and molecular function, B12D proteins are DNA-binding proteins. Cis-regulatory elements screening in putative B12D promoters found various responsive elements for light, abscisic acid, methyl jasmonate, cytokinin, drought, and heat. Despite that, there is specific elements for cold stress, cell cycle, circadian, auxin, salicylic acid, and gibberellic acid in the promoter of a few B12D genes indicating for functional diversification for B12D family members. The digital expression shows that B12D genes of Glycine max have similar expression patterns consistent with their clustering in the phylogenetic tree. However, the expression of B12D genes of Hordeum vulgure appears inconsistent with their clustering in the tree. Despite the strong conservation of the B12D proteins of Viridiplantae, gene association analysis, promoter analysis, and digital expression indicate different roles for the members of the B12D family during plant developmental stages.
PMID: 35721582