Nucleic Acids Res , IF:16.971 , 2023 Jan doi: 10.1093/nar/gkac1275
Cold-induced inhibition of photosynthesis-related genes integrated by a TOP6 complex in rice mesophyll cells.
Guangzhou City Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Key Laboratory of Biology, Genetics and Breeding, Pazhou Dadao Rd 17-19, Haizhu District, Guangzhou 510000, China.; Key Laboratory of Plant Functional Genomics of Ministry of Education/Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Crop Genetics, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou 225009, China.; Shenzhen Branch, Guangdong Laboratory of Lingnan Modern Agriculture, Genome Analysis Laboratory of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Agricultural Genomics Institute at Shenzhen, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Shenzhen 518000, China.; Laboratory of Photosynthesis and Environment, CAS Center for Excellence in Molecular Plant Sciences, Shanghai Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200032, China.; Hainan Yazhou Bay Seed Laboratory, Sanya 572025, China.
Photosynthesis is the most temperature-sensitive process in the plant kingdom, but how the photosynthetic pathway responds during low-temperature exposure remains unclear. Herein, cold stress (4 degrees C) induced widespread damage in the form DNA double-stranded breaks (DSBs) in the mesophyll cells of rice (Oryza sativa), subsequently causing a global inhibition of photosynthetic carbon metabolism (PCM) gene expression. Topoisomerase genes TOP6A3 and TOP6B were induced at 4 degrees C and their encoded proteins formed a complex in the nucleus. TOP6A3 directly interacted with KU70 to inhibit its binding to cold-induced DSBs, which was facilitated by TOP6B, finally blocking the loading of LIG4, a component of the classic non-homologous end joining (c-NHEJ) pathway. The repression of c-NHEJ repair imposed by cold extended DSB damage signaling, thus prolonging the inhibition of photosynthesis in leaves. Furthermore, the TOP6 complex negatively regulated 13 crucial PCM genes by directly binding to their proximal promoter regions. Phenotypically, TOP6A3 overexpression exacerbated the gamma-irradiation-triggered suppression of PCM genes and led to the hypersensitivity of photosynthesis parameters to cold stress, dependent on the DSB signal transducer ATM. Globally, the TOP6 complex acts as a signal integrator to control PCM gene expression and synchronize cold-induced photosynthesis inhibition, which modulates carbon assimilation rates immediately in response to changes in ambient temperature.
PMID: 36660855
Nat Plants , IF:15.793 , 2023 Jan , V9 (1) : P9-10 doi: 10.1038/s41477-022-01330-8
Chilling stress and loss of an exonuclease lead to biparental inheritance of plastids.
PMID: 36650221
Nat Plants , IF:15.793 , 2023 Jan , V9 (1) : P68-80 doi: 10.1038/s41477-022-01323-7
Control of plastid inheritance by environmental and genetic factors.
Max-Planck-Institut fur Molekulare Pflanzenphysiologie, Potsdam-Golm, Germany.; Universitat Hamburg, Institut fur Pflanzenwissenschaften und Mikrobiologie, Hamburg, Germany.; Max-Planck-Institut fur Molekulare Pflanzenphysiologie, Potsdam-Golm, Germany. rbock@mpimp-golm.mpg.de.
The genomes of cytoplasmic organelles (mitochondria and plastids) are maternally inherited in most eukaryotes, thus excluding organellar genomes from the benefits of sexual reproduction and recombination. The mechanisms underlying maternal inheritance are largely unknown. Here we demonstrate that two independently acting mechanisms ensure maternal inheritance of the plastid (chloroplast) genome. Conducting large-scale genetic screens for paternal plastid transmission, we discovered that mild chilling stress during male gametogenesis leads to increased entry of paternal plastids into sperm cells and strongly increased paternal plastid transmission. We further show that the inheritance of paternal plastid genomes is controlled by the activity of a genome-degrading exonuclease during pollen maturation. Our data reveal that (1) maternal inheritance breaks down under specific environmental conditions, (2) an organelle exclusion mechanism and a genome degradation mechanism act in concert to prevent paternal transmission of plastid genes and (3) plastid inheritance is determined by complex gene-environment interactions.
PMID: 36646831
Sci Adv , IF:14.136 , 2023 Jan , V9 (1) : Peabq5506 doi: 10.1126/sciadv.abq5506
Natural variation of codon repeats in COLD11 endows rice with chilling resilience.
Key Laboratory of Plant Molecular Physiology, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100093, China.; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.; School of Mathematics and Statistics, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing, 100181, China.; State Key Laboratory of Plant Genomics, Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.; Jiangsu Co-Innovation Center for Modern Production Technology of Grain Crops, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou 225009, China.; State Key Laboratory of Systematic and Evolutionary Botany, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100093, China.; LSC, NCMIS, Academy of Mathematics and Systems Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China.
Abnormal temperature caused by global climate change threatens the rice production. Defense signaling network for chilling has been uncovered in plants. However, less is known about repairing DNA damage produced from overwhelmed defense and its evolution during domestication. Here, we genetically identified a major QTL, COLD11, using the data-merging genome-wide association study based on an algorithm combining polarized data from two subspecies, indica and japonica, into one system. Rice loss-of-function mutations of COLD11 caused reduced chilling tolerance. Genome evolution analysis of representative rice germplasms suggested that numbers of GCG sequence repeats in the first exon of COLD11 were subjected to strong domestication selection during the northern expansion of rice planting. The repeat numbers affected the biochemical activity of DNA repair protein COLD11/RAD51A1 in renovating DNA damage under chilling stress. Our findings highlight a potential way to finely manipulate key genes in rice genome and effectively improve chilling tolerance through molecular designing.
PMID: 36608134
EMBO J , IF:11.598 , 2023 Jan , V42 (1) : Pe110518 doi: 10.15252/embj.2021110518
Cold-induced calreticulin OsCRT3 conformational changes promote OsCIPK7 binding and temperature sensing in rice.
Key Laboratory of Plant Molecular Physiology, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.; Institut fur Biologie und Biotechnologie der Pflanzen, Westfalische Wilhelms-Universitat, Munster, Germany.; Laboratory of Soft Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.; State Key Laboratory of Plant Physiology and Biochemistry, College of Biological Sciences, China Agricultural University, Beijing, China.; Innovation Academy for Seed Design, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
Unusually low temperatures caused by global climate change adversely affect rice production. Sensing cold to trigger signal network is a key base for improvement of chilling tolerance trait. Here, we report that Oryza sativa Calreticulin 3 (OsCRT3) localized at the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) exhibits conformational changes under cold stress, thereby enhancing its interaction with CBL-interacting protein kinase 7 (OsCIPK7) to sense cold. Phenotypic analyses of OsCRT3 knock-out mutants and transgenic overexpression lines demonstrate that OsCRT3 is a positive regulator in chilling tolerance. OsCRT3 localizes at the ER and mediates increases in cytosolic calcium levels under cold stress. Notably, cold stress triggers secondary structural changes of OsCRT3 and enhances its binding affinity with OsCIPK7, which finally boosts its kinase activity. Moreover, Calcineurin B-like protein 7 (OsCBL7) and OsCBL8 interact with OsCIPK7 specifically on the plasma membrane. Taken together, our results thus identify a cold-sensing mechanism that simultaneously conveys cold-induced protein conformational change, enhances kinase activity, and Ca(2+) signal generation to facilitate chilling tolerance in rice.
PMID: 36341575
Plant Cell , IF:11.277 , 2023 Jan , V35 (1) : P510-528 doi: 10.1093/plcell/koac320
A plastid nucleoside kinase is involved in inosine salvage and control of purine nucleotide biosynthesis.
Department of Molecular Nutrition and Biochemistry of Plants, Leibniz Universitat Hannover, Hannover 30419, Germany.; Department of Agricultural Biotechnology, Seoul National University, Seoul 151-921, Republic of Korea.
In nucleotide metabolism, nucleoside kinases recycle nucleosides into nucleotides-a process called nucleoside salvage. Nucleoside kinases for adenosine, uridine, and cytidine have been characterized from many organisms, but kinases for inosine and guanosine salvage are not yet known in eukaryotes and only a few such enzymes have been described from bacteria. Here we identified Arabidopsis thaliana PLASTID NUCLEOSIDE KINASE 1 (PNK1), an enzyme highly conserved in plants and green algae belonging to the Phosphofructokinase B family. We demonstrate that PNK1 from A. thaliana is located in plastids and catalyzes the phosphorylation of inosine, 5-aminoimidazole-4-carboxamide-1-beta-d-ribose (AICA ribonucleoside), and uridine but not guanosine in vitro, and is involved in inosine salvage in vivo. PNK1 mutation leads to increased flux into purine nucleotide catabolism and, especially in the context of defective uridine degradation, to over-accumulation of uridine and UTP as well as growth depression. The data suggest that PNK1 is involved in feedback regulation of purine nucleotide biosynthesis and possibly also pyrimidine nucleotide biosynthesis. We additionally report that cold stress leads to accumulation of purine nucleotides, probably by inducing nucleotide biosynthesis, but that this adjustment of nucleotide homeostasis to environmental conditions is not controlled by PNK1.
PMID: 36342213
J Adv Res , IF:10.479 , 2022 Dec doi: 10.1016/j.jare.2022.12.011
Mediating a host cell signaling pathway linked to overwinter mortality offers a promising therapeutic approach for improving bee health.
Guangdong Key Laboratory of Animal Conservation and Resource Utilization, Guangdong Public Laboratory of Wild Animal Conservation and Utilization, Institute of Zoology, Guangdong Academy of Sciences, Guanzhou 510260, PR China; U.S. Department of Agriculture -Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS) Bee Research Laboratory, Beltsville, MD 20705, USA; School of Chinese Medicinal Resource, Guangdong Pharmaceutical University, Yunfu 527527, PR China.; U.S. Department of Agriculture -Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS) Bee Research Laboratory, Beltsville, MD 20705, USA.; U.S. Department of Agriculture -Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS) Bee Research Laboratory, Beltsville, MD 20705, USA; College of Animal Sciences (Bee Science), Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou, Fujian 350002, PR China.; U.S. Department of Agriculture -Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS) Animal Genomics and Improvement Laboratory, Beltsville, MD 20705, USA.; Guangdong Key Laboratory of Animal Conservation and Resource Utilization, Guangdong Public Laboratory of Wild Animal Conservation and Utilization, Institute of Zoology, Guangdong Academy of Sciences, Guanzhou 510260, PR China.; U.S. Department of Agriculture -Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS) Bee Research Laboratory, Beltsville, MD 20705, USA; Key Laboratory of Pollinating Insect Biology, Institute of Apicultural Research, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Science, Beijing 100093, PR China.; Key Laboratory of Pollinating Insect Biology, Institute of Apicultural Research, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Science, Beijing 100093, PR China.; Identification Technology Program (ITP) Molecular Laboratory, USDA-APHIS-PPQ-Science & Technology (S&T), Fort Collins, CO 80526-1825, USA.; USDA-ARS Carl Hayden Bee Research Center, 2000 East Allen Road, Tucson, AZ 85719, USA.; Key Laboratory of Medicinal Animal and Plant Resources of Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau in Qinghai Province, Qinghai Normal University, Xining 810000, China.; U.S. Department of Agriculture -Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS) Bee Research Laboratory, Beltsville, MD 20705, USA. Electronic address: judy.chen@usda.gov.
INTRODUCTION: Honey bees provides valuable pollination services for world food crops and wild flowering plants which are habitats of many animal species and remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, a powerful tool in the fight against climate change. Nevertheless, the honey bee population has been declining and the majority of colony losses occur during the winter. OBJECTIVES: The goal of this study was to understand the mechanisms underlying overwinter colony losses and develop novel therapeutic strategies for improving bee health. METHODS: First, pathogen prevalence in overwintering bees were screened between 2015 and 2018. Second, RNA sequencing (RNA-Seq) for transcriptional profiling of overwintering honey bees was conducted and qRT-PCR was performed to confirm the results of the differential expression of selected genes. Lastly, laboratory bioassays were conducted to measure the effects of cold challenges on bee survivorship and stress responses and to assess the effect of a novel medication for alleviating cold stress in honey bees. RESULTS: We identified that sirtuin signaling pathway is the most significantly enriched pathway among the down-regulated differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in overwintering diseased bees. Moreover, we showed that the expression of SIRT1 gene, a major sirtuin that regulates energy and immune metabolism, was significantly downregulated in bees merely exposed to cold challenges, linking cold stress with altered gene expression of SIRT1. Furthermore, we demonstrated that activation of SIRT1 gene expression by SRT1720, an activator of SIRT1 expression, could improve the physiology and extend the lifespan of cold-stressed bees. CONCLUSION: Our study suggests that increased energy consumption of overwintering bees for maintaining hive temperature reduces the allocation of energy toward immune functions, thus making the overwintering bees more susceptible to disease infections and leading to high winter colony losses. The novel information gained from this study provides a promising avenue for the development of therapeutic strategies for mitigating colony losses, both overwinter and annually.
PMID: 36564001
New Phytol , IF:10.151 , 2022 Dec doi: 10.1111/nph.18699
Cold stress induces malformed tomato fruits by breaking the feedback loops of stem cell regulation in floral meristem.
College of Horticulture, Haixia Institute of Science and Technology, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou, 350002, China.; United Graduate School of Agricultural Sciences, Iwate University, Morioka, Iwate, 020-8550, Japan.; Department of Biological Chemistry and Food Science, Faculty of Agriculture, Iwate University, Morioka, Iwate, 020-8550, Japan.; Department of Plant Bio Sciences, Faculty of Agriculture, Iwate University, Morioka, Iwate, 020-8550, Japan.
Fruit malformation is a major constrain in fruit production worldwide resulting in substantial economic losses. The farmers for decades noticed that the chilling temperature before blooming often caused malformed fruits. However, the molecular mechanism underlying this phenomenon is unclear. Here we examined the fruit development in response to cold stress in tomato, and demonstrated that short-term cold stress increased the callose accumulation in both shoot apical and floral meristems, resulting in the symplastic isolation and altered intercellular movement of WUS. In contrast to the rapidly restored SlWUS transcription during the recovery from cold stress, the callose removal was delayed due to obstructed plasmodesmata. The delayed reinstatement of cell-to-cell transport of SlWUS prevented the activation of SlCLV3 and TAG1, causing the interrupted feedback inhibition of SlWUS expression, leading to the expanded stem cell population and malformed fruits. We further showed that the callose dynamics in response to short-term cold stress presumably exploits the mechanism of bud dormancy during the seasonal growth, involving two antagonistic hormones, abscisic acid and gibberellin. Our results provide a novel insight into the cold stress regulated malformation of fruit.
PMID: 36564973
New Phytol , IF:10.151 , 2023 Feb , V237 (3) : P870-884 doi: 10.1111/nph.18568
SEC1-C3H39 module fine-tunes cold tolerance by mediating its target mRNA degradation in tomato.
Department of Horticulture, Zhejiang University, Zijingang Campus, 866 Yuhangtang Road, Hangzhou, 310058, China.; Hainan Institute, Zhejiang University, Sanya, 572025, China.; Key Laboratory of Horticultural Plants Growth and Development, Agricultural Ministry of China, Yuhangtang Road 866, Hangzhou, 310058, China.
Plants adapt to cold stress at the physiological and biochemical levels, thus enabling them to maintain growth and development. However, the molecular mechanism of fine-tuning cold signals remains largely unknown. We addressed the function of SlSEC1-SlC3H39 module in cold tolerance by using SlSEC1 and SlC3H39 knockout and overexpression tomato lines. A tandem CCCH zinc-finger protein SlC3H39 negatively modulates cold tolerance in tomato. SlC3H39 binds to AU-rich elements in the 3'-untranslated region (UTR) to induce mRNA degradation and regulates gene expression post-transcriptionally. We further validate that SlC3H39 participates in post-transcriptional regulation of a variety of cold-responsive genes. An O-linked N-acetylglucosamine transferase SlSEC1 physically interacts with SlC3H39 proteins and negatively regulates cold tolerance in tomato. Further study shows that SlSEC1 is essential for SlC3H39 protein stability and maintains SlC3H39 function in cold tolerance. Genetic analysis shows that SlC3H39 is epistatic to SlSEC1 in cold tolerance. The findings indicate that SlC3H39 negatively modulates plant cold tolerance through post-transcriptional regulation by binding to cold-responding mRNA 3'-UTR and reducing those transcripts. SlSEC1 promotes the O-GlcNAclation status of SlC3H39 and maintains SlC3H39 function in cold tolerance. Taken together, we propose a SlSEC1-SlC3H39 module, which allows plants to balance defense responses and growth processes.
PMID: 36285381
Plant Biotechnol J , IF:9.803 , 2023 Jan doi: 10.1111/pbi.14016
A natural promoter variation of SlBBX31 confers enhanced cold tolerance during tomato domestication.
State Key Laboratory of Crop Stress Adaptation and Improvement, School of Life Sciences, Henan University, Kaifeng, 475001, China.; Sanya Institute of Henan University, Sanya, Hainan, 572025, China.; Yunnan Key Laboratory of Potato Biology, The AGISCAAS-YNNU Joint Academy of Potato Sciences, Yunnan Normal University, Kunming, 650500, China.; College of Horticulture, China Agricultural University, No.2 Yuanmingyuan West Road, Haidian District, Beijing, 100193, China.; School of Life Sciences, Anhui Agricultural University, Hefei, Anhui, 230036, China.; Shenzhen Branch, Guangdong Laboratory of Lingnan Modern Agriculture, Genome Analysis Laboratory of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Agricultural Genomics Institute at Shenzhen, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Shenzhen, China.; Institute of Advanced Biotechnology and School of Life Sciences, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen 518055, China; Center for Advanced Bioindustry Technologies, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, 100081, China.
Cold stress affects crop growth and productivity worldwide. Understanding the genetic basis of cold tolerance in germplasms is critical for crop improvement. Plants can coordinate environmental stimuli of light and temperature to regulate cold tolerance. However, it remains unknown which gene in germplasms could have such function. Here, we utilized genome-wide association study (GWAS) to investigate the cold tolerance of wild and cultivated tomato accessions and discovered that increased cold tolerance is accompanied with tomato domestication. We further identified a 27-bp InDel in the promoter of the CONSTANS-like transcription factor (TF) SlBBX31 is significantly linked with cold tolerance. Coincidentally, a key regulator of light signaling, SlHY5, can directly bind to the SlBBX31 promoter to activate SlBBX31 transcription while the 27-bp InDel can prevent S1HY5 from transactivating SlBBX31. Parallel to these findings, we observed that the loss of function of SlBBX31 results in impaired tomato cold tolerance. SlBBX31 can also modulate the cold-induced expression of several ERF TFs including CBF2 and DREBs. Therefore, our study has uncovered that SlBBX31 is possibly selected during tomato domestication for cold tolerance regulation, providing valuable insights for the development of hardy tomato varieties.
PMID: 36704926
Plant Physiol , IF:8.34 , 2022 Nov doi: 10.1093/plphys/kiac533
FER and LecRK show haplotype-dependent cold-responsiveness and mediate freezing tolerance in Lotus japonicus.
Graduate School of Life Sciences, Tohoku University, Katahira 2-1-1, Aoba-ku, Sendai, 980-8577, Japan.; Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Aarhus University, DK-8000 Aarhus, Denmark.; Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, North Carolina State University, 890 Oval Drive, 3114 Engineering Building II, Raleigh, NC 27606, USA.
Many plant species have succeeded in colonizing a wide range of diverse climates through local adaptation, but the underlying molecular genetics remain obscure. We previously found that winter survival was a direct target of selection during colonization of Japan by the perennial legume Lotus japonicus and identified associated candidate genes. Here, we show that two of these, FERONIA-receptor like kinase (LjFER) and a S-receptor-like kinase gene (LjLecRK) are required for non-acclimated freezing tolerance and show haplotype-dependent cold-responsive expression. Our work suggests that recruiting a conserved growth regulator gene, FER, and a receptor-like kinase gene, LecRK, into the set of cold-responsive genes has contributed to freezing tolerance and local climate adaptation in L. japonicus, offering functional genetic insight into perennial herb evolution.
PMID: 36448631
Food Chem , IF:7.514 , 2023 Mar , V405 (Pt B) : P134957 doi: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2022.134957
MaMYB13 is involved in response to chilling stress via activating expression of VLCFAs and phenylpropanoids biosynthesis-related genes in postharvest banana fruit.
Key Laboratory of South China Agricultural Plant Molecular Analysis and Genetic Improvement & Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Applied Botany, South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510650, China; South China National Botanical Garden, Guangzhou 510650, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China. Electronic address: lizhiwei@scbg.ac.cn.; Key Laboratory of South China Agricultural Plant Molecular Analysis and Genetic Improvement & Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Applied Botany, South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510650, China; South China National Botanical Garden, Guangzhou 510650, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China. Electronic address: zhouyijie123@scbg.ac.cn.; Key Laboratory of South China Agricultural Plant Molecular Analysis and Genetic Improvement & Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Applied Botany, South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510650, China; South China National Botanical Garden, Guangzhou 510650, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China. Electronic address: lianghanzhi@scbg.ac.cn.; Wenzhou Institute, University of Chinese Academy Sciences, Wenzhou 325027, China. Electronic address: liqing@wiucas.ac.cn.; Key Laboratory of South China Agricultural Plant Molecular Analysis and Genetic Improvement & Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Applied Botany, South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510650, China; South China National Botanical Garden, Guangzhou 510650, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China. Electronic address: ymjiang@scbg.ac.cn.; Key Laboratory of South China Agricultural Plant Molecular Analysis and Genetic Improvement & Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Applied Botany, South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510650, China; South China National Botanical Garden, Guangzhou 510650, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China. Electronic address: xwduan@scbg.ac.cn.; Key Laboratory of South China Agricultural Plant Molecular Analysis and Genetic Improvement & Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Applied Botany, South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510650, China; South China National Botanical Garden, Guangzhou 510650, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China. Electronic address: gxjiang@scbg.ac.cn.
Fruit chilling injury is the result of physiological dysfunction due to membrane lipid phase change, oxidative damage of biomacromolecules and respiratory metabolism abnormality. However, the involvement of transcription factors in response to fruits chilling tolerance remains largely unclear. Here, MaMYB13 was identified to participate in banana fruit response to chilling stress. MaMYB13 has transcriptional activation activity. When exposed to low temperature, expression of MaMYB13 was enormously induced. Moreover, MaMYB13 promoter was activated by chilling stress. MaMYB13 bound to the promoters of several important very-long-chain fatty acids (VLCFAs) and phenylpropanoids biosynthesis-related genes, including MaKCS11, Ma4CL6 and MaAAE1, and activated their transcription. Furthermore, MaKIN10 X1/3 interacted with MaMYB13 and enhanced MaMYB13-mediated transcriptional activation possibly via phosphorylation. Altogether, our results unravel the mechanism of MaMYB13-MaKIN10 X1/3 interaction regulating banana fruit chilling tolerance through activating the expression of MaKCS11, Ma4CL6 and MaAAE1, providing new insights into the regulatory network of MYB transcription factor.
PMID: 36417802
Plant Cell Environ , IF:7.228 , 2022 Dec doi: 10.1111/pce.14513
bHLH57 confers chilling tolerance and grain yield improvement in rice.
Hunan Province Key Laboratory of Crop Sterile Germplasm Resource Innovation and Application, College of Life Sciences, Hunan Normal University, Changsha, China.; Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, University of California, Berkeley, California, USA.
Chilling stress has become a major limiting factor that reduces crop productivity worldwide. In this study, we identified a new gene bHLH57, whose product enhances chilling tolerance in rice at diverse developmental stages. bHLH57 was mainly expressed in leaves and anthers, and its protein was targeted to the nucleus. Overexpression of bHLH57 enhanced chilling tolerance by increasing trehalose synthesis, whereas its mutants by CRISPR/Cas9-mediated mutagenesis were more sensitive to chilling and had reduced trehalose. Meanwhile, bHLH57 may regulate ROS metabolism and CBFs/DREBs- dependent pathways in response to chilling stress. In addition, the overexpression of bHLH57 resulted in increased grain yield under normal and chilling conditions, however, the disruption of bHLH57 displayed decreased grain size and seed setting rate, thus reduced grain yield. Phylogenetic and nucleotide diversity analyses suggested that bHLH57 is relatively conserved in monocotyledons, and may be selected during indica populations adaptation. Taken together, we have identified a new bHLH regulator involved rice chilling tolerance and grain yield, and provide a potential target gene for improving chilling tolerance and grain yield of rice.
PMID: 36510797
Plant Cell Environ , IF:7.228 , 2023 Feb , V46 (2) : P464-478 doi: 10.1111/pce.14483
Limitation of sucrose biosynthesis shapes carbon partitioning during plant cold acclimation.
Plant Evolutionary Cell Biology, Faculty of Biology, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitat Munchen, Planegg-Martinsried, Germany.; Theoretical Biophysics, Institute of Biology, Humboldt-Universitat zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany.; Institute for Biosciences, Physiology of Plant Metabolism, University of Rostock, Rostock, Germany.
Cold acclimation is a multigenic process by which many plant species increase their freezing tolerance. Stabilization of photosynthesis and carbohydrate metabolism plays a crucial role in cold acclimation. To study regulation of primary and secondary metabolism during cold acclimation of Arabidopsis thaliana, metabolic mutants with deficiencies in either starch or flavonoid metabolism were exposed to 4 degrees C. Photosynthesis was determined together with amounts of carbohydrates, anthocyanins, organic acids and enzyme activities of the central carbohydrate metabolism. Starch deficiency was found to significantly delay soluble sugar accumulation during cold acclimation, while starch overaccumulation did not affect accumulation dynamics but resulted in lower total amounts of \sucrose and glucose. Anthocyanin amounts were lowered in both starch deficient and overaccumulating mutants. Vice versa, flavonoid deficiency did not result in a changed starch amount, which suggested a unidirectional signalling link between starch and flavonoid metabolism. Mathematical modelling of carbon metabolism indicated kinetics of sucrose biosynthesis to be limiting for carbon partitioning in leaf tissue during cold exposure. Together with cold-induced dynamics of citrate, fumarate and malate amounts, this provided evidence for a central role of sucrose phosphate synthase activity in carbon partitioning between biosynthetic and dissimilatory pathways which stabilizes photosynthesis and metabolism at low temperature.
PMID: 36329607
J Integr Plant Biol , IF:7.061 , 2022 Dec , V64 (12) : P2327-2343 doi: 10.1111/jipb.13379
CHH methylation of genes associated with fatty acid and jasmonate biosynthesis contributes to cold tolerance in autotetraploids of Poncirus trifoliata.
Key Laboratory of Horticultural Plant Biology (MOE), College of Horticulture and Forestry Sciences, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070, China.; Guangxi Key Laboratory of Citrus Biology, Guangxi Academy of Specialty Crops, Guilin, 541004, China.
Polyploids have elevated stress tolerance, but the underlying mechanisms remain largely elusive. In this study, we showed that naturally occurring tetraploid plants of trifoliate orange (Poncirus trifoliata (L.) Raf.) exhibited enhanced cold tolerance relative to their diploid progenitors. Transcriptome analysis revealed that whole-genome duplication was associated with higher expression levels of a range of well-characterized cold stress-responsive genes. Global DNA methylation profiling demonstrated that the tetraploids underwent more extensive DNA demethylation in comparison with the diploids under cold stress. CHH methylation in the promoters was associated with up-regulation of related genes, whereas CG, CHG, and CHH methylation in the 3'-regions was relevant to gene down-regulation. Of note, genes involved in unsaturated fatty acids (UFAs) and jasmonate (JA) biosynthesis in the tetraploids displayed different CHH methylation in the gene flanking regions and were prominently up-regulated, consistent with greater accumulation of UFAs and JA when exposed to the cold stress. Collectively, our findings explored the difference in cold stress response between diploids and tetraploids at both transcriptional and epigenetic levels, and gained new insight into the molecular mechanisms underlying enhanced cold tolerance of the tetraploid. These results contribute to uncovering a novel regulatory role of DNA methylation in better cold tolerance of polyploids.
PMID: 36218272
J Integr Plant Biol , IF:7.061 , 2023 Jan , V65 (1) : P10-24 doi: 10.1111/jipb.13356
Brassinosteroid signaling positively regulates abscisic acid biosynthesis in response to chilling stress in tomato.
Department of Horticulture, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310058, China.; Hainan Institute, Zhejiang University, Sanya, 572025, China.; Key Laboratory of Horticultural Plants Growth, Development and Quality Improvement, Agricultural Ministry of China, Hangzhou, 310058, China.
Brassinosteroids (BRs) and abscisic acid (ABA) are essential regulators of plant growth and stress tolerance. Although the antagonistic interaction of BRs and ABA is proposed to ensure the balance between growth and defense in model plants, the crosstalk between BRs and ABA in response to chilling in tomato (Solanum lycopersicum), a warm-climate horticultural crop, is unclear. Here, we determined that overexpression of the BR biosynthesis gene DWARF (DWF) or the key BR signaling gene BRASSINAZOLE-RESISTANT1 (BZR1) increases ABA levels in response to chilling stress via positively regulating the expression of the ABA biosynthesis gene 9-CIS-EPOXYCAROTENOID DIOXYGENASE1 (NCED1). BR-induced chilling tolerance was mostly dependent on ABA biosynthesis. Chilling stress or high BR levels decreased the abundance of BRASSINOSTEROID-INSENSITIVE2 (BIN2), a negative regulator of BR signaling. Moreover, we observed that chilling stress increases BR levels and results in the accumulation of BZR1. BIN2 negatively regulated both the accumulation of BZR1 protein and chilling tolerance by suppressing ABA biosynthesis. Our results demonstrate that BR signaling positively regulates chilling tolerance via ABA biosynthesis in tomato. The study has implications in production of warm-climate crops in horticulture.
PMID: 36053143
J Exp Bot , IF:6.992 , 2022 Dec , V73 (22) : P7538-7551 doi: 10.1093/jxb/erac370
Tomato SlMYB15 transcription factor targeted by sly-miR156e-3p positively regulates ABA-mediated cold tolerance.
Department of Horticulture, Zijingang Campus, Zhejiang University, 866 Yuhangtang Road, Hangzhou, 310058, P.R. China.; Henan International Joint Laboratory of Crop Gene Resources and Improvements, School of Agricultural Sciences, Zhengzhou University, Henan, Zhengzhou 45001, China.; Key Laboratory of Horticultural Plants Growth and Development, Agricultural Ministry of China, Yuhangtang Road 866, Hangzhou, 310058, P.R. China.
Cold is a common abiotic stress that seriously affects plant growth and development. MYB transcription factors are regulatory molecules that play important roles in various biological processes. We have previously demonstrated that SlMYB15 positively regulates cold tolerance in tomato. However, the underlying mechanism of SlMYB15-induced cold tolerance remains largely unexplored. Here, cold-induced SlMYB15 was found to be targeted by Solanum lycopersicum (sly)-miR156e-3p, which was decreased by cold stimulus in tomato. Tomato plants overexpressing sly-MIR156e-3p displayed significant enhancement in susceptibility to cold stress, while silencing of sly-miR156e-3p by an artificial microRNA interference strategy caused tomato plants to be more tolerant to cold. Moreover, both overexpression of SlMYB15 and silencing of sly-miR156e-3p increased the accumulation of ABA. SlMYB15 directly binds to the promoter regions of ABA biosynthesis and signalling genes, SlNCED1 and SlABF4, resulting in enhanced cold tolerance. Further experiments showed that SlMYB15 and sly-miR156e-3p also coordinated the cold tolerance of tomato via the reactive oxygen species (ROS) signalling pathway, as reflected by the increased expression of SlRBOH1, enhanced H2O2 and O2*-accumulation, and amplified activity of antioxidant enzymes in SlMYB15-overexpressing and sly-miR156e-3p-silenced plants. Taken together, our results demonstrate that SlMYB15 targeted by sly-miR156e-3p confers higher survivability to cold stress via ABA and ROS signals. This study provides valuable information for breeding improved crop cultivars better equipped with cold tolerance.
PMID: 36103722
Int J Biol Macromol , IF:6.953 , 2023 Jan , V229 : P766-777 doi: 10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2022.12.330
Genome-wide identification, characterization and evolutionary dynamic of invertase gene family in apple, and revealing its roles in cold tolerance.
State Key Laboratory of Crop Stress Biology for Arid Areas/Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Apple, College of Horticulture, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, Shaanxi 712100, China.; State Key Laboratory of Crop Stress Biology for Arid Areas/Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Apple, College of Horticulture, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, Shaanxi 712100, China. Electronic address: limingjun@nwsuaf.edu.cn.; State Key Laboratory of Crop Stress Biology for Arid Areas/Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Apple, College of Horticulture, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, Shaanxi 712100, China. Electronic address: bqma87@nwsuaf.edu.cn.
Invertases are ubiquitous enzymes that catalyze the unalterable cleavage of sucrose into glucose and fructose, and are crucially involved in plant growth, development and stress response. In this study, a total of 17 putative invertase genes, including 3 cell wall invertases, 3 vacuolar invertases, and 11 neutral invertases were identified in apple genome. Subcellular localization of MdNINV7 and MdNINV11 indicated that both invertases were located in the cytoplasm. Comprehensive analyses of physicochemical properties, chromosomal localization, genomic characterization, and gene evolution of MdINV family were conducted. Gene duplication revealed that whole-genome or segmental duplication and random duplication might have been the major driving force for MdINVs expansion. Selection index values, omega, showed strong evidence of positive selection signatures among the INV clusters. Gene expression analysis indicated that MdNINV1/3/6/7 members are crucially involved in fruit development and sugar accumulation. Similarly, expression profiles of MdCWINV1, MdVINV1, and MdNINV1/2/7/11 suggested their potential roles in response to cold stress. Furthermore, overexpression of MdNINV11 in apple calli at least in part promoted the expression of MdCBF1-5 and H(2)O(2) detoxification in response to cold. Overall, our results will be useful for understanding the functions of MdINVs in the regulation of apple fruit development and cold stress response.
PMID: 36610562
Int J Biol Macromol , IF:6.953 , 2023 Jan , V225 : P1394-1404 doi: 10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2022.11.197
VaBAM1 weakens cold tolerance by interacting with the negative regulator VaSR1 to suppress beta-amylase expression.
College of Horticulture, Gansu Agricultural University, Lanzhou 730070, China.; College of Horticulture, Gansu Agricultural University, Lanzhou 730070, China; State Key Laboratory of Aridland Crop Science, Gansu Agricultural University, Lanzhou 730070, China. Electronic address: maojuan@gsau.edu.cn.; College of Horticulture, Gansu Agricultural University, Lanzhou 730070, China; State Key Laboratory of Aridland Crop Science, Gansu Agricultural University, Lanzhou 730070, China. Electronic address: bhch@gsau.edu.cn.
Cold stress is a key climatic factor that limits grape productivity and quality. Although beta-amylase (BAM) is known to play an important role as a mediator of starch degradation under conditions of cold stress, the mechanism by which BAM regulates cold tolerance in grape remains unclear. Here, we identified VaBAM1 from Vitis amurensis and characterized its interactive regulating mechanism under cold stress in Arabidopsis thaliana and grape. VaBAM1-overexpressing A. thaliana plants (OEs) exhibited high freezing tolerance. Soluble sugar content and amylase activity were increased in OEs and VaBAM1-overexpressing grape calli (VaBAM1-OEs) under cold stress; however, they were decreased in grape calli in which VaBAM1 was edited using CRISPR/Cas9. The results of yeast two-hybrid, bimolecular fluorescence complementation, and pull-down experiments showed that serine/arginine-rich splicing factor 1 (VaSR1) interacted with VaBAM1. Furthermore, the expression of VaSR1 was opposite that of VaBAM1 in phloem tissue of Vitis amurensis during winter dormancy. In VaSR1-overexpressing grape calli (VaSR1-OEs), BAM activity and the expression levels of C-repeat binding transcription factor and cold response genes were all significantly lower than that in untransformed calli subjected to cold stress. Moreover, VvBAM1 was downregulated in VaSR1-OEs under cold stress. Overall, we identified that VaSR1 interacts with VaBAM1, negatively regulating BAM activity and resulting in decreased plant cold tolerance.
PMID: 36436609
Int J Biol Macromol , IF:6.953 , 2022 Dec , V223 (Pt A) : P1450-1461 doi: 10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2022.11.148
Identification of nuclear pore complexes (NPCs) and revealed outer-ring component BnHOS1 related to cold tolerance in B. napus.
Hybrid Rapeseed Research Center of Shaanxi Province, Yangling 712100, Shaanxi, China; State Key Laboratory of Crop Stress Biology in Arid Areas and College of Agronomy, Northwest A&F University, Yangling 712100, Shaanxi, China.; State Key Laboratory of Crop Stress Biology in Arid Areas and College of Agronomy, Northwest A&F University, Yangling 712100, Shaanxi, China.; Hybrid Rapeseed Research Center of Shaanxi Province, Yangling 712100, Shaanxi, China.; Hybrid Rapeseed Research Center of Shaanxi Province, Yangling 712100, Shaanxi, China. Electronic address: jxmsxyc@163.com.; Hybrid Rapeseed Research Center of Shaanxi Province, Yangling 712100, Shaanxi, China. Electronic address: zhangyfcl@163.com.
Nuclear pore complexes (NPCs) consist of ~30 different nucleoporins (Nups), are the unique channels that govern development, hormonal response, and roles in both biotic and abiotic responses, as well as the transport and information exchange of biomacromolecules between nucleoplasms. Here, we report the comprehensive identification of 77 BnNups throughout the zhongshuang11 (ZS11) genome, which were classified into 29 distinct categories based on their evolutionary connections. We compared and contrasted different BnNups by analyzing at their gene structures, protein domains, putative three-dimensional (3D) models and expression patterns. Additional examples of genome-wide duplication events and cross-species synteny are provided to demonstrate the proliferation and evolutionary conservation of BnNups. When BnHOS1 was modified using CRISPR/Cas9 technology, the resulting L10 and L28 lines exhibited substantial freezing resistance. This not only demonstrated the negative regulatory impact of BnHOS1 on cold stress, but also offered a promising candidate gene for cold tolerance breeding and augmented the available B. napus material. These findings not only help us learn more about the composition and function of BnNPCs in B. napus, but they also provide light on how NPCs in other eukaryotic organism functions.
PMID: 36402381
Hortic Res , IF:6.793 , 2023 , V10 (1) : Puhac227 doi: 10.1093/hr/uhac227
The essential role of jasmonate signaling in Solanum habrochaites rootstock-mediated cold tolerance in tomato grafts.
Key Laboratory of Horticultural Plant Biology, Ministry of Education, College of Horticulture and Forestry Sciences, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070, P.R. China.
Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) is among the most important vegetables across the world, but cold stress usually affects its yield and quality. The wild tomato species Solanum habrochaites is commonly utilized as rootstock for enhancing resistance against abiotic stresses in cultivated tomato, especially cold resistance. However, the underlying molecular mechanism remains unclear. In this research, we confirmed that S. habrochaites rootstock can improve the cold tolerance of cultivated tomato scions, as revealed by growth, physiological, and biochemical indicators. Furthermore, transcriptome profiling indicated significant differences in the scion of homo- and heterografted seedlings, including substantial changes in jasmonic acid (JA) biosynthesis and signaling, which were validated by RT-qPCR analysis. S. habrochaites plants had a high basal level of jasmonate, and cold stress caused a greater amount of active JA-isoleucine in S. habrochaites heterografts. Moreover, exogenous JA enhanced while JA inhibitor decreased the cold tolerance of tomato grafts. The JA biosynthesis-defective mutant spr8 also showed increased sensitivity to cold stress. All of these results demonstrated the significance of JA in the cold tolerance of grafted tomato seedlings with S. habrochaites rootstock, suggesting a future direction for the characterization of the natural variation involved in S. habrochaites rootstock-mediated cold tolerance.
PMID: 36643752
Plant J , IF:6.417 , 2023 Jan , V113 (2) : P327-341 doi: 10.1111/tpj.16049
An alternative pathway to plant cold tolerance in the absence of vacuolar invertase activity.
Department of Postharvest Science, Agricultural Research Organization (ARO), The Volcani Institute, Rishon LeZion, Israel.; The Robert H. Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environment, Institute of Plant Sciences and Genetics in Agriculture, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Rehovot, 76100, Israel.; Institute of Plant Sciences, Agricultural Research Organization (ARO), The Volcani Institute, Rishon LeZion, Israel.; Department of Plant Pathology and Weed Research, Agricultural Research Organization (ARO), The Volcani Institute, Rishon LeZion, Israel.; Danziger Innovations Limited, Mishmar Hashiva, Israel.; Department of Ornamental Horticulture, Agricultural Research Organization (ARO), The Volcani Institute, Rishon LeZion, Israel.; Department of Plant Breeding, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Alnarp, Sweden.
To cope with cold stress, plants have developed antioxidation strategies combined with osmoprotection by sugars. In potato (Solanum tuberosum) tubers, which are swollen stems, exposure to cold stress induces starch degradation and sucrose synthesis. Vacuolar acid invertase (VInv) activity is a significant part of the cold-induced sweetening (CIS) response, by rapidly cleaving sucrose into hexoses and increasing osmoprotection. To discover alternative plant tissue pathways for coping with cold stress, we produced VInv-knockout lines in two cultivars. Genome editing of VInv in 'Desiree' and 'Brooke' was done using stable and transient expression of CRISPR/Cas9 components, respectively. After storage at 4 degrees C, sugar analysis indicated that the knockout lines showed low levels of CIS and maintained low acid invertase activity in storage. Surprisingly, the tuber parenchyma of vinv lines exhibited significantly reduced lipid peroxidation and reduced H(2) O(2) levels. Furthermore, whole plants of vinv lines exposed to cold stress without irrigation showed normal vigor, in contrast to WT plants, which wilted. Transcriptome analysis of vinv lines revealed upregulation of an osmoprotectant pathway and ethylene-related genes during cold temperature exposure. Accordingly, higher expression of antioxidant-related genes was detected after exposure to short and long cold storage. Sugar measurements showed an elevation of an alternative pathway in the absence of VInv activity, raising the raffinose pathway with increasing levels of myo-inositol content as a cold tolerance response.
PMID: 36448213
Antioxidants (Basel) , IF:6.312 , 2023 Jan , V12 (1) doi: 10.3390/antiox12010211
Postharvest Treatment with Abscisic Acid Alleviates Chilling Injury in Zucchini Fruit by Regulating Phenolic Metabolism and Non-Enzymatic Antioxidant System.
Department of Plant Physiology, Facultad de Ciencias, University of Granada, 18071 Granada, Spain.; Department of Nutrition and Bromatology, University of Granada, 18071 Granada, Spain.; Department of Biology and Geology, Agrifood Campus of International Excellence (CeiA3), University of Almeria, 04120 Almeria, Spain.
Reports show that phytohormone abscisic acid (ABA) is involved in reducing zucchini postharvest chilling injury. During the storage of harvested fruit at low temperatures, chilling injury symptoms were associated with cell damage through the production of reactive oxygen species. In this work, we have studied the importance of different non-enzymatic antioxidants on tolerance to cold stress in zucchini fruit treated with ABA. The application of ABA increases the antioxidant capacity of zucchini fruit during storage through the accumulation of ascorbate, carotenoids and polyphenolic compounds. The quantification of specific phenols was performed by UPLC/MS-MS, observing that exogenous ABA mainly activated the production of flavonoids. The rise in all these non-enzymatic antioxidants due to ABA correlates with a reduction in oxidative stress in treated fruit during cold stress. The results showed that the ABA mainly induces antioxidant metabolism during the first day of exposure to low temperatures, and this response is key to avoiding the occurrence of chilling injury. This work suggests an important protective role of non-enzymatic antioxidants and polyphenolic metabolism in the prevention of chilling injury in zucchini fruit.
PMID: 36671073
Antioxidants (Basel) , IF:6.312 , 2022 Dec , V12 (1) doi: 10.3390/antiox12010079
Oligomeric Proanthocyanidins Confer Cold Tolerance in Rice through Maintaining Energy Homeostasis.
Agronomy College, Jilin Agricultural University, Changchun 130118, China.; National Key Laboratory of Rice Biology, China National Rice Research Institute, Hangzhou 310006, China.; Zhejiang Agricultural Technology Extension Center, Hangzhou 310020, China.
Oligomeric proanthocyanidins (OPCs) are abundant polyphenols found in foods and botanicals that benefit human health, but our understanding of the functions of OPCs in rice plants is limited, particularly under cold stress. Two rice genotypes, named Zhongzao39 (ZZ39) and its recombinant inbred line RIL82, were subjected to cold stress. More damage was caused to RIL82 by cold stress than to ZZ39 plants. Transcriptome analysis suggested that OPCs were involved in regulating cold tolerance in the two genotypes. A greater increase in OPCs content was detected in ZZ39 than in RIL82 plants under cold stress compared to their respective controls. Exogenous OPCs alleviated cold damage of rice plants by increasing antioxidant capacity. ATPase activity was higher and poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) activity was lower under cold stress in ZZ39 than in RIL82 plants. Importantly, improvements in cold tolerance were observed in plants treated with the OPCs and 3-aminobenzamide (PARP inhibitor, 3ab) combination compared to the seedling plants treated with H(2)O, OPCs, or 3ab alone. Therefore, OPCs increased ATPase activity and inhibited PARP activity to provide sufficient energy for rice seedling plants to develop antioxidant capacity against cold stress.
PMID: 36670941
Antioxidants (Basel) , IF:6.312 , 2022 Dec , V11 (12) doi: 10.3390/antiox11122414
Melatonin Affects the Photosynthetic Performance of Pepper (Capsicum annuum L.) Seedlings under Cold Stress.
Key Laboratory for Quality Regulation of Tropical Horticultural Crops of Hainan Province, Sanya Nanfan Research Institute, Hainan University, Sanya 572025, China.; Key Laboratory for Quality Regulation of Tropical Horticultural Crops of Hainan Province, School of Horticulture, Hainan University, Haikou 570228, China.; Hainan Yazhou Bay Seed Laboratory, Sanya 572025, China.
Photosynthesis is an important plant metabolic mechanism that improves carbon absorption and crop yield. Photosynthetic efficiency is greatly hampered by cold stress (CS). Melatonin (ME) is a new plant growth regulator that regulates a wide range of abiotic stress responses. However, the molecular mechanism of ME-mediated photosynthetic regulation in cold-stressed plants is not well understood. Our findings suggest that under low-temperature stress (15/5 degrees C for 7 days), spraying the plant with ME (200 microM) enhanced gas exchange characteristics and the photosynthetic pigment content of pepper seedlings, as well as upregulated their biosynthetic gene expression. Melatonin increased the activity of photosynthetic enzymes (Rubisco and fructose-1, 6-bisphosphatase) while also enhancing starch, sucrose, soluble sugar, and glucose content under CS conditions. Low-temperature stress significantly decreased the photochemical activity of photosystem II (PSII) and photosystem I (PSI), specifically their maximum quantum efficiency PSII (Fv/Fm) and PSI (Pm). In contrast, ME treatment improved the photochemical activity of PSII and PSI. Furthermore, CS dramatically reduced the actual PSII efficiency (PhiPSII), electron transport rate (ETR) and photochemical quenching coefficient (qP), while enhancing nonphotochemical quenching (NPQ); however, ME treatment substantially mitigated the effects of CS. Our results clearly show the probable function of ME treatment in mitigating the effects of CS by maintaining photosynthetic performance, which might be beneficial when screening genotypes for CS tolerance.
PMID: 36552621
Int J Mol Sci , IF:5.923 , 2023 Jan , V24 (2) doi: 10.3390/ijms24021478
Evolutionary Landscape of Tea Circular RNAs and Its Contribution to Chilling Tolerance of Tea Plant.
State Key Laboratory of Tea Plant Biology and Utilization, Anhui Agricultural University, Hefei 230036, China.; Institute of Sericultural Research, Anhui Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Hefei 230031, China.; Tea Research Institute, Anhui Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Hefei 230031, China.; Federal Research Centre the Subtropical Scientific Centre, The Russian Academy of Sciences, Sochi 354002, Russia.
Chilling stress threatens the yield and distribution pattern of global crops, including the tea plant (Camellia sinensis), one of the most important cash crops around the world. Circular RNA (circRNA) plays roles in regulating plant growth and biotic/abiotic stress responses. Understanding the evolutionary characteristics of circRNA and its feedbacks to chilling stress in the tea plant will help to elucidate the vital roles of circRNAs. In the current report, we systematically identified 2702 high-confidence circRNAs under chilling stress in the tea plant, and interestingly found that the generation of tea plant circRNAs was associated with the length of their flanking introns. Repetitive sequences annotation and DNA methylation analysis revealed that the longer flanking introns of circRNAs present more repetitive sequences and higher methylation levels, which suggested that repeat-elements-mediated DNA methylation might promote the circRNAs biogenesis in the tea plant. We further detected 250 differentially expressed circRNAs under chilling stress, which were functionally enriched in GO terms related to cold/stress responses. Constructing a circRNA-miRNA-mRNA interaction network discovered 139 differentially expressed circRNAs harboring potential miRNA binding sites, which further identified 14 circRNAs that might contribute to tea plant chilling responses. We further characterized a key circRNA, CSS-circFAB1, which was significantly induced under chilling stress. FISH and silencing experiments revealed that CSS-circFAB1 was potentially involved in chilling tolerance of the tea plant. Our study emphasizes the importance of circRNA and its preliminary role against low-temperature stress, providing new insights for tea plant cold tolerance breeding.
PMID: 36674993
Int J Mol Sci , IF:5.923 , 2023 Jan , V24 (2) doi: 10.3390/ijms24021265
Molecular Mechanism of Cold Tolerance of Centipedegrass Based on the Transcriptome.
College of Grassland Science and Technology, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu 611130, China.; Sichuan Academy of Grassland Science, Chengdu 610097, China.
Low temperature is an important limiting factor in the environment that affects the distribution, growth and development of warm-season grasses. Transcriptome sequencing has been widely used to mine candidate genes under low-temperature stress and other abiotic stresses. However, the molecular mechanism of centipedegrass in response to low-temperature stress was rarely reported. To understand the molecular mechanism of centipedegrass in response to low-temperature stress, we measured physiological indicators and sequenced the transcriptome of centipedegrass under different stress durations. Under cold stress, the SS content and APX activity of centipedegrass increased while the SOD activity decreased; the CAT activity, POD activity and flavonoid content first increased and then decreased; and the GSH-Px activity first decreased and then increased. Using full-length transcriptome and second-generation sequencing, we obtained 38.76 G subreads. These reads were integrated into 177,178 isoforms, and 885 differentially expressed transcripts were obtained. The expression of AUX_IAA and WRKY transcription factors and HSF transcription-influencing factors increased during cold stress. Through KEGG enrichment analysis, we determined that arginine and proline metabolism, plant circadian rhythm, plant hormone signal transduction and the flavonoid biosynthesis pathways played important roles in the cold stress resistance of centipedegrass. In addition, by using weighted gene coexpression network analysis (WGCNA), we determined that the turquoise module was significantly correlated with SS content and APX activity, while the blue module was significantly negatively correlated with POD and CAT activity. This paper is the first to report the response of centipedegrass to cold stress at the transcriptome level. Our results help to clarify the molecular mechanisms underlying the cold tolerance of warm-season grasses.
PMID: 36674780
Int J Mol Sci , IF:5.923 , 2022 Dec , V24 (1) doi: 10.3390/ijms24010525
Comprehensive Analyses of the Histone Deacetylases Tuin (HDT) Gene Family in Brassicaceae Reveals Their Roles in Stress Response.
Southern Regional Collaborative Innovation Center for Grain and Oil Crops in China, Hunan Agricultural University, Changsha 410128, China.; College of Landscape Architecture and Art Design, Hunan Agricultural University, Changsha 410128, China.; Oil Crops Research Institute, Hunan Agricultural University, Changsha 410128, China.; Hunan Branch of National Oilseed Crops Improvement Center, Changsha 410128, China.
Histone deacetylases tuin (HDT) is a plant-specific protein subfamily of histone deacetylation enzymes (HDAC) which has a variety of functions in plant development, hormone signaling and stress response. Although the HDT family's genes have been studied in many plant species, they have not been characterized in Brassicaceae. In this study, 14, 8 and 10 HDT genes were identified in Brassica napus, Brassica rapa and Brassica oleracea, respectively. According to phylogenetic analysis, the HDTs were divided into four groups: HDT1(HD2A), HDT2(HD2B), HDT3(HD2C) and HDT4(HD2D). There was an expansion of HDT2 orthologous genes in Brassicaceae. Most of the HDT genes were intron-rich and conserved in gene structure, and they coded for proteins with a nucleoplasmin-like (NPL) domain. Expression analysis showed that B. napus, B. rapa, and B. oleracea HDT genes were expressed in different organs at different developmental stages, while different HDT subgroups were specifically expressed in specific organs and tissues. Interestingly, most of the Bna/Br/BoHDT2 members were expressed in flowers, buds and siliques, suggesting they have an important role in the development of reproductive organs in Brassicaceae. Expression of BnaHDT was induced by various hormones, such as ABA and ethylene treatment, and some subgroups of genes were responsive to heat treatment. The expression of most HDT members was strongly induced by cold stress and freezing stress after non-cold acclimation, while it was slightly induced after cold acclimation. In this study, the HDT gene family of Brassicaceae was analyzed for the first time, which helps in understanding the function of BnaHDT in regulating plant responses to abiotic stresses, especially freezing stresses.
PMID: 36613968
Int J Mol Sci , IF:5.923 , 2022 Dec , V24 (1) doi: 10.3390/ijms24010480
Overexpression of ZmDHN15 Enhances Cold Tolerance in Yeast and Arabidopsis.
College of Life Sciences, Jilin Agricultural University, Changchun 130118, China.; Joint International Research Laboratory of Modern Agricultural Technology, Ministry of Education, Jilin Agricultural University, Changchun 130118, China.; Jilin Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Changchun 130118, China.; College of Agronomy, Jilin Agricultural University, Changchun 130118, China.
Maize (Zea mays L.) originates from the subtropical region and is a warm-loving crop affected by low-temperature stress. Dehydrin (DHN) protein, a member of the Group 2 LEA (late embryogenesis abundant proteins) family, plays an important role in plant abiotic stress. In this study, five maize DHN genes were screened based on the previous transcriptome sequencing data in our laboratory, and we performed sequence analysis and promoter analysis on these five DHN genes. The results showed that the promoter region has many cis-acting elements related to cold stress. The significantly upregulated ZmDHN15 gene has been further screened by expression pattern analysis. The subcellular localization results show that ZmDHN15 fusion protein is localized in the cytoplasm. To verify the role of ZmDHN15 in cold stress, we overexpressed ZmDHN15 in yeast and Arabidopsis. We found that the expression of ZmDHN15 can significantly improve the cold resistance of yeast. Under cold stress, ZmDHN15-overexpressing Arabidopsis showed lower MDA content, lower relative electrolyte leakage, and less ROS (reactive oxygen species) when compared to wild-type plants, as well as higher seed germination rate, seedling survival rate, and chlorophyll content. Furthermore, analysis of the expression patterns of ROS-associated marker genes and cold-response-related genes indicated that ZmDHN15 genes play an important role in the expression of these genes. In conclusion, the overexpression of the ZmDHN15 gene can effectively improve the tolerance to cold stress in yeast and Arabidopsis. This study is important for maize germplasm innovation and the genetic improvement of crops.
PMID: 36613921
Int J Mol Sci , IF:5.923 , 2022 Dec , V24 (1) doi: 10.3390/ijms24010030
Cold Stress Response Mechanisms in Anther Development.
Collaborative Innovation Center for Efficient and Green Production of Agriculture in Mountainous Areas of Zhejiang Province, College of Horticulture Science, Zhejiang Agriculture and Forestry University, Hangzhou 311300, China.
Unlike animals that can escape threats, plants must endure and adapt to biotic and abiotic stresses in their surroundings. One such condition, cold stress, impairs the normal growth and development of plants, in which most phases of reproductive development are particularly susceptible to external low temperature. Exposed to uncomfortably low temperature at the reproductive stage, meiosis, tapetal programmed cell death (PCD), pollen viability, and fertilization are disrupted, resulting in plant sterility. Of them, cold-induced tapetal dysfunction is the main cause of pollen sterility by blocking nutrition supplements for microspore development and altering their timely PCD. Further evidence has indicated that the homeostatic imbalances of hormones, including abscisic acid (ABA) and gibberellic acid (GA), and sugars have occurred in the cold-treated anthers. Among them, cold stress gives rise to the accumulation of ABA and the decrease of active GA in anthers to affect tapetal development and represses the transport of sugar to microspores. Therefore, plants have evolved lots of mechanisms to alleviate the damage of external cold stress to reproductive development by mainly regulating phytohormone levels and sugar metabolism. Herein, we discuss the physiological and metabolic effects of low temperature on male reproductive development and the underlying mechanisms from the perspective of molecular biology. A deep understanding of cold stress response mechanisms in anther development will provide noteworthy references for cold-tolerant crop breeding and crop production under cold stress.
PMID: 36613473
Int J Mol Sci , IF:5.923 , 2022 Dec , V23 (24) doi: 10.3390/ijms232416072
MbICE1 Confers Drought and Cold Tolerance through Up-Regulating Antioxidant Capacity and Stress-Resistant Genes in Arabidopsis thaliana.
Institute of Rural Revitalization Science and Technology, Heilongjiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Harbin 150028, China.; Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Harbin 150081, China.; Huma Cold Temperate Zone Experimental Station of Conservation and Utilization of Wild Plant Germplasm Resources, Daxing'anling 165000, China.; Key Laboratory of Biology and Genetic Improvement of Horticultural Crops (Northeast Region), Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, National-Local Joint Engineering Research Center for Development and Utilization of Small Fruits in Cold Regions, College of Horticulture & Landscape Architecture, Northeast Agricultural University, Harbin 150030, China.
Malus baccata (L.) Borkh is an apple rootstock with good drought and cold resistance. The ICE gene is a key factor in the molecular mechanisms of plant drought and cold resistance. In the present research, the function of drought- and cold-induced MbICE1 of Malus baccata was investigated in Arabidopsis. According to GFP fluorescence images, MbICE1 was determined to be a nuclear protein. The MbICE1 was transferred to Arabidopsis, showing enhanced tolerance to drought and cold stresses. Under drought and cold treatments, the transgenic Arabidopsis had higher chlorophyll content and free proline content than WT plants, but the Malondialdehyde (MDA) content and electrolyte leakage (EL) were lower than those of WT plants. In addition, drought and cold led to a large accumulation of ROS (H(2)O(2) and O(2-)) content in Arabidopsis, while overexpression of MbICE1 enhanced the antioxidant enzyme activity in Arabidopsis and improved the plant's resistance to stresses. Moreover, the accumulation of MbICE1 promoted the expression of AtCBF1, AtCBF2, AtCBF3, AtCOR15a, AtCOR47 and AtKIN1 genes in Arabidopsis. These data indicate that MbICE1 is a key regulator of drought and cold and can be used as a backup gene for breeding Malus rootstocks.
PMID: 36555710
Int J Mol Sci , IF:5.923 , 2022 Dec , V23 (24) doi: 10.3390/ijms232415918
Genome-Wide Identification of Wheat KNOX Gene Family and Functional Characterization of TaKNOX14-D in Plants.
College of Agronomy, Northwest A&F University, Xianyang 712100, China.
The KNOX genes play important roles in maintaining SAM and regulating the development of plant leaves. However, the TaKNOX genes in wheat are still not well understood, especially their role in abiotic stress. In this study, a total of 36 KNOX genes were identified, and we demonstrated the function of the TaKNOX14-D gene under mechanical injury and cold stress. Thirty-six TaKNOX genes were divided into two groups, and thirty-four TaKNOX genes were predicted to be located in the nucleus by Cell-PLoc. These genes contained five tandem duplications. Fifteen collinear gene pairs were exhibited in wheat and rice, one collinear gene pair was exhibited in wheat and Arabidopsis. The phylogenetic tree and motif analysis suggested that the TaKNOX gene appeared before C3 and C4 diverged. Gene structure showed that the numbers of exons and introns in TaKNOX gene are different. Wheat TaKNOX genes showed different expression patterns during the wheat growth phase, with seven TaKNOX genes being highly expressed in the whole growth period. These seven genes were also highly expressed in most tissues, and also responded to most abiotic stress. Eleven TaKNOX genes were up-regulated in the tillering node during the leaf regeneration period after mechanical damage. When treating the wheat with different hormones, the expression patterns of TaKNOX were changed, and results showed that ABA promoted TaKNOX expression and seven TaKNOX genes were up-regulated under cytokinin and auxin treatment. Overexpression of the TaKNOX14-D gene in Arabidopsis could increase the leaf size, plant height and seed size. This gene overexpression in Arabidopsis also increased the compensatory growth capacity after mechanical damage. Overexpression lines also showed high resistance to cold stress. This study provides a better understanding of the TaKNOX genes.
PMID: 36555558
Int J Mol Sci , IF:5.923 , 2022 Dec , V23 (23) doi: 10.3390/ijms232315225
Genome-Wide Identification of AP2/ERF Superfamily Genes in Juglans mandshurica and Expression Analysis under Cold Stress.
Jilin Provincial Key Laboratory of Tree and Grass Genetics and Breeding, College of Forestry and Grassland Science, Jilin Agricultural University, Changchun 130118, China.; Key Laboratory of Saline-alkali Vegetation Ecology Restoration, Ministry of Education, Northeast Forestry University, Harbin 150040, China.; College of Horticulture, Jilin Agricultural University, Changchun 130118, China.
Juglans mandshurica has strong freezing resistance, surviving temperatures as low as -40 degrees C, making it an important freeze tolerant germplasm resource of the genus Juglans. APETALA2/ethylene responsive factor (AP2/ERF) is a plant-specific superfamily of transcription factors that regulates plant development, growth, and the response to biotic and abiotic stress. In this study, phylogenetic analysis was used to identify 184 AP2/ERF genes in the J. mandshurica genome, which were classified into five subfamilies (JmAP2, JmRAV, JmSoloist, JmDREB, and JmERF). A significant amount of discordance was observed in the 184 AP2/ERF genes distribution of J. mandshurica throughout its 16 chromosomes. Duplication was found in 14 tandem and 122 segmental gene pairs, which indicated that duplications may be the main reason for JmAP2/ERF family expansion. Gene structural analysis revealed that 64 JmAP2/ERF genes contained introns. Gene evolution analysis among Juglandaceae revealed that J. mandshurica is separated by 14.23 and 15 Mya from Juglans regia and Carya cathayensis, respectively. Based on promoter analysis in J. mandshurica, many cis-acting elements were discovered that are related to light, hormones, tissues, and stress response processes. Proteins that may contribute to cold resistance were selected for further analysis and were used to construct a cold regulatory network based on GO annotation and JmAP2/ERF protein interaction network analysis. Expression profiling using qRT-PCR showed that 14 JmAP2/ERF genes were involved in cold resistance, and that seven and five genes were significantly upregulated under cold stress in female flower buds and phloem tissues, respectively. This study provides new light on the role of the JmAP2/ERF gene in cold stress response, paving the way for further functional validation of JmAP2/ERF TFs and their application in the genetic improvement of Juglans and other tree species.
PMID: 36499551
Int J Mol Sci , IF:5.923 , 2022 Dec , V23 (23) doi: 10.3390/ijms232315214
Overexpression of CfICE1 from Cryptomeria fortunei Enhances Cold, Drought and Salt Stress in Poplar.
Key Laboratory of Forest Genetics & Biotechnology of Ministry of Education, Co-Innovation Center for Sustainable Forestry in Southern China, College of Forestry, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing 210037, China.
ICE1, a regulator of the cold-inducible transcriptome and freezing tolerance, is currently widely believed to be involved in plant resistance to cold stress. In this study, CfICE1 from Cryptomeria fortunei was transformed into poplar. Physiological indicators of transgenic, empty vector and wild-type poplar after abiotic stress (cold, drought and salt) were determined. Transgenic lines had a higher chlorophyll content, antioxidant enzyme activity and soluble protein content, as well as a lower malondialdehyde and hydrogen peroxide content. The ultrastructure of the plant was observed by transmission electron microscopy, and after stress, the cell structure of the transgenic line was more complete than that of the wild type. CfICE1 was upregulated in transgenic poplar trees after abiotic stress (cold, drought and salt). The CfICE1 transgenic plants improved plant resistance by regulating the CBF gene of poplar under cold and salt stress. In terms of plant responses to abiotic stress, this study showed that overexpression of CfICE1 improved the cold, drought and salt tolerance of poplars.
PMID: 36499538
Int J Mol Sci , IF:5.923 , 2022 Dec , V23 (24) doi: 10.3390/ijms232416057
Abscisic Acid Mediates Salicylic Acid Induced Chilling Tolerance of Grafted Cucumber by Activating H(2)O(2) Biosynthesis and Accumulation.
State Key Laboratory of Crop Biology, Key Laboratory of Crop Biology and Genetic Improvement of Horticultural Crops in Huanghuai Region, Collaborative Innovation Center of Fruit & Vegetable Quality and Efficient Production in Shandong, College of Horticulture Science and Engineering, Shandong Agricultural University, Tai'an 271018, China.; Tai'an Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Tai'an 271000, China.
Grafting is widely applied to enhance the tolerance of some vegetables to biotic and abiotic stress. Salicylic acid (SA) is known to be involved in grafting-induced chilling tolerance in cucumber. Here, we revealed that grafting with pumpkin (Cucurbita moschata, Cm) as a rootstock improved chilling tolerance and increased the accumulation of SA, abscisic acid (ABA) and hydrogen peroxide (H(2)O(2)) in grafted cucumber (Cucumis sativus/Cucurbita moschata, Cs/Cm) leaves. Exogenous SA improved the chilling tolerance and increased the accumulation of ABA and H(2)O(2) and the mRNA abundances of CBF1, COR47, NCED, and RBOH1. However, 2-aminoindan-2-phosphonic acid (AIP) and L-a-aminooxy-b-phenylpropionic acid (AOPP) (biosynthesis inhibitors of SA) reduced grafting-induced chilling tolerance, as well as the synthesis of ABA and H(2)O(2), in cucumber leaves. ABA significantly increased endogenous H(2)O(2) production and the resistance to chilling stress, as proven by the lower electrolyte leakage (EL) and chilling injury index (CI). However, application of the ABA biosynthesis inhibitors sodium tungstate (Na(2)WO(4)) and fluridone (Flu) abolished grafting or SA-induced H(2)O(2) accumulation and chilling tolerance. SA-induced plant response to chilling stress was also eliminated by N,N'-dimethylthiourea (DMTU, an H(2)O(2) scavenger). In addition, ABA-induced chilling tolerance was attenuated by DMTU and diphenyleneiodonium (DPI, an H(2)O(2) inhibitor) chloride, but AIP and AOPP had little effect on the ABA-induced mitigation of chilling stress. Na(2)WO(4) and Flu diminished grafting- or SA-induced H(2)O(2) biosynthesis, but DMTU and DPI did not affect ABA production induced by SA under chilling stress. These results suggest that SA participated in grafting-induced chilling tolerance by stimulating the biosynthesis of ABA and H(2)O(2). H(2)O(2), as a downstream signaler of ABA, mediates SA-induced chilling tolerance in grafted cucumber plants.
PMID: 36555697
Int J Mol Sci , IF:5.923 , 2022 Dec , V24 (1) doi: 10.3390/ijms24010609
Salicylic Acid Improves the Constitutive Freezing Tolerance of Potato as Revealed by Transcriptomics and Metabolomics Analyses.
Key Laboratory of Biology and Genetic Improvement of Tuber and Root Crop, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China.; Lingnan Guangdong Laboratory of Modern Agriculture, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China.; Key Laboratory of Biology and Genetic Improvement of Horticultural Crops (South China), Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, College of Horticulture, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China.; Key Laboratory of Horticultural Plant Biology, Ministry of Education, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, China.; Key Laboratory of Potato Biology and Biotechnology, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, College of Horticulture and Forestry Science, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, China.
Freezing severely impacts potato production. Deciphering the pathways and metabolites that regulate the freezing tolerance of potato is useful in cultivation and breeding for hardiness. In the present study, Solanum acaule was identified to be more freezing tolerant than S. tuberosum. Furthermore, the two genotypes before/after exposure to 4 degrees C for 7 d with additional -1 degrees C for 12 h were analysed by RNA-seq and metabolomics, and the results were compared with the previous -1 degrees C for 12 h. The results showed that S. acaule activated numerous genes that differed from those of S. tuberosum. Among the genes, five pathways, such as the hormone signalling pathway, which includes salicylic acid, were enriched. Further metabolomics analysis showed that the content of salicylic acid was improved in S. acaule in response to -1 degrees C for 12 h. Moreover, exogenous application of 0.1 mM salicylic acid to potato was shown to improve constitutive freezing tolerance and increase the expression of HSFC1. Following transcriptome and metabolome analyses, it was documented that the content of SA that increased in freezing-tolerant S. acaule after exposure to cold condition, associated with the SA signalling pathway, enhanced potato freezing tolerance, probably through HSFC1.
PMID: 36614052
Int J Mol Sci , IF:5.923 , 2022 Nov , V23 (23) doi: 10.3390/ijms232315050
Protective Strategies of Haberlea rhodopensis for Acquisition of Freezing Tolerance: Interaction between Dehydration and Low Temperature.
Institute of Plant Physiology and Genetics, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Acad. G. Bonchev Str., Bl. 21, 1113 Sofia, Bulgaria.; Department of Botany, Ecology and Plant Physiology, University of La Laguna (ULL), 38200 Tenerife, Spain.; Bioeconomy Institute (IBE), Department of Bio-Agrifood Science (DiSBA), National Research Council (CNR), Via P. Gobetti 101, I-40129 Bologna, Italy.; Department of Plant Biology and Ecology, University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), Barrio Sarriena s/n, 48940 Bilbao, Spain.; Department of Physical Chemistry, University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), Barrio Sarriena s/n, 48940 Bilbao, Spain.
Resurrection plants are able to deal with complete dehydration of their leaves and then recover normal metabolic activity after rehydration. Only a few resurrection species are exposed to freezing temperatures in their natural environments, making them interesting models to study the key metabolic adjustments of freezing tolerances. Here, we investigate the effect of cold and freezing temperatures on physiological and biochemical changes in the leaves of Haberlea rhodopensis under natural and controlled environmental conditions. Our data shows that leaf water content affects its thermodynamical properties during vitrification under low temperatures. The changes in membrane lipid composition, accumulation of sugars, and synthesis of stress-induced proteins were significantly activated during the adaptation of H. rhodopensis to both cold and freezing temperatures. In particular, the freezing tolerance of H. rhodopensis relies on a sucrose/hexoses ratio in favor of hexoses during cold acclimation, while there is a shift in favor of sucrose upon exposure to freezing temperatures, especially evident when leaf desiccation is relevant. This pattern was paralleled by an elevated ratio of unsaturated/saturated fatty acids and significant quantitative and compositional changes in stress-induced proteins, namely dehydrins and early light-induced proteins (ELIPs). Taken together, our data indicate that common responses of H. rhodopensis plants to low temperature and desiccation involve the accumulation of sugars and upregulation of dehydrins/ELIP protein expression. Further studies on the molecular mechanisms underlying freezing tolerance (genes and genetic regulatory mechanisms) may help breeders to improve the resistance of crop plants.
PMID: 36499377
Front Plant Sci , IF:5.753 , 2022 , V13 : P1110724 doi: 10.3389/fpls.2022.1110724
Multi-omics approach reveals the contribution of OsSEH1 to rice cold tolerance.
Rice Research Institute/Collaborative Innovation Center for Genetic Improvement and High Quality and Efficiency Production of Northeast Japonica Rice in China, Shenyang Agricultural University, Shenyang, China.
As low environmental temperature adversely affects the growth, development and geographical distribution, plants have evolved multiple mechanisms involving changing physiological and metabolic processes to adapt to cold stress. In this study, we revealed that nucleoporin-coding gene OsSEH1 was a positive regulator of cold stress in rice. Physiological assays showed that the activity of antioxidant enzymes showed a significant difference between osseh1 knock-out lines and wild type under cold stress. Metabolome analysis revealed that the contents of large-scale flavonoids serving as ROS scavengers were lower in osseh1 mutants compared with wild type under cold stress. Transcriptome analysis indicated that the DEGs between osseh1 knock-out lines and wild type plants were enriched in defense response, regulation of hormone levels and oxidation-reduction process. Integration of transcriptomic and metabolic profiling revealed that OsSEH1 plays a role in the oxidation-reduction process by coordinately regulating genes expression and metabolite accumulation involved in phenylpropanoid and flavonoid biosynthetic pathway. In addition, Exogenous ABA application assays indicated that osseh1 lines had hypersensitive phenotypes compared with wild type plants, suggesting that OsSEH1 may mediate cold tolerance by regulating ABA levels.
PMID: 36714747
Front Plant Sci , IF:5.753 , 2022 , V13 : P1091907 doi: 10.3389/fpls.2022.1091907
Genome-wide identification of the B3 gene family in soybean and the response to melatonin under cold stress.
College of Agriculture, Heilongjiang Bayi Agricultural University, Daqing, Heilongjiang, China.; College of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture, Heilongjiang Bayi Agricultural University, Daqing, Heilongjiang, China.
INTRODUCTION: Melatonin is a multipotent molecule that exists widely in animals and plants and plays an active regulatory role in abiotic stresses. The B3 superfamily is a ubiquitous transcription factor with a B3 functional domain in plants, which can respond temporally to abiotic stresses by activating defense compounds and plant hormones. Despite the fact that the B3 genes have been studied in a variety of plants, their role in soybean is still unknown. METHODS: The regulation of melatonin on cold resistance of soybean and the response of B3 genes to cold stress were investigated by measuring biochemical indexes of soybean. Meanwhile, the genome-wide identification of B3 gene family was conducted in soybean, and B3 genes were analyzed based on phylogeny, motifs, gene structure, collinearity, and cis-regulatory elements analysis. RESULTS: We found that cold stress-induced oxidative stress in soybean by producing excessive reactive oxygen species. However, exogenous melatonin treatment could increase the content of endogenous melatonin and other hormones, including IAA and ABA, and enhance the antioxidative system, such as POD activity, CAT activity, and GSH/GSSG, to scavenge ROS. Furthermore, the present study first revealed that melatonin could alleviate the response of soybean to cold stress by inducing the expression of B3 genes. In addition, we first identified 145 B3 genes in soybean that were unevenly distributed on 20 chromosomes. The B3 gene family was divided into 4 subgroups based on the phylogeny tree constructed with protein sequence and a variety of plant hormones and stress response cis-elements were discovered in the promoter region of the B3 genes, indicating that the B3 genes were involved in several aspects of the soybean stress response. Transcriptome analysis and results of qRT-PCR revealed that most GmB3 genes could be induced by cold, the expression of which was also regulated by melatonin. We also found that B3 genes responded to cold stress in plants by interacting with other transcription factors. DISCUSSION: We found that melatonin regulates the response of soybean to cold stress by regulating the expression of the transcription factor B3 gene, and we identified 145 B3 genes in soybean. These findings further elucidate the potential role of the B3 gene family in soybean to resist low-temperature stress and provide valuable information for soybean functional genomics study.
PMID: 36714689
Front Plant Sci , IF:5.753 , 2022 , V13 : P1095335 doi: 10.3389/fpls.2022.1095335
Comparative analysis of physiological variations and genetic architecture for cold stress response in soybean germplasm.
Sanya Nanfan Research Institute of Hainan University, Hainan Yazhou Bay Seed Laboratory, Sanya, China.; College of Tropical Crops, Hainan University, Haikou, China.; College of Life Sciences, Jilin Agricultural University, Changchun, China.
Soybean (Glycine max L.) is susceptible to low temperatures. Increasing lines of evidence indicate that abiotic stress-responsive genes are involved in plant low-temperature stress response. However, the involvement of photosynthesis, antioxidants and metabolites genes in low temperature response is largely unexplored in Soybean. In the current study, a genetic panel of diverse soybean varieties was analyzed for photosynthesis, chlorophyll fluorescence and leaf injury parameters under cold stress and control conditions. This helps us to identify cold tolerant (V100) and cold sensitive (V45) varieties. The V100 variety outperformed for antioxidant enzymes activities and relative expression of photosynthesis (Glyma.08G204800.1, Glyma.12G232000.1), GmSOD (GmSOD01, GmSOD08), GmPOD (GmPOD29, GmPOD47), trehalose (GmTPS01, GmTPS13) and cold marker genes (DREB1E, DREB1D, SCOF1) than V45 under cold stress. Upon cold stress, the V100 variety showed reduced accumulation of H(2)O(2) and MDA levels and subsequently showed lower leaf injury compared to V45. Together, our results uncovered new avenues for identifying cold tolerant soybean varieties from a large panel. Additionally, we identified the role of antioxidants, osmo-protectants and their posttranscriptional regulators miRNAs such as miR319, miR394, miR397, and miR398 in Soybean cold stress tolerance.
PMID: 36684715
Front Plant Sci , IF:5.753 , 2022 , V13 : P1075279 doi: 10.3389/fpls.2022.1075279
Epigenetic stress memory: A new approach to study cold and heat stress responses in plants.
Co-Innovation Center for Sustainable Forestry in Southern China, Bamboo Research Institute, Key Laboratory of National Forestry and Grassland Administration on Subtropical Forest Biodiversity Conservation, College of Biology and the Environment, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China.; Bamboo Industry Institute, Zhejiang A&F University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China.; School of Forestry and Biotechnology, Zhejiang A&F University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China.; Department of Zoology, St. Albert's College (Autonomous), Kochi, Kerala, India.; Helsinki Institute of Life Science HiLIFE, Biocenter 3, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.; National Laboratory Astana, Nazarbayev University, Astana, Kazakhstan.; State Key Laboratory of Subtropical Silviculture, Bamboo Industry Institute, Zhejiang A&F University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China.; Zhejiang Provincial Collaborative Innovation Center for Bamboo Resources and High-Efficiency Utilization, Zhejiang A&F University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China.
Understanding plant stress memory under extreme temperatures such as cold and heat could contribute to plant development. Plants employ different types of stress memories, such as somatic, intergenerational and transgenerational, regulated by epigenetic changes such as DNA and histone modifications and microRNAs (miRNA), playing a key role in gene regulation from early development to maturity. In most cases, cold and heat stresses result in short-term epigenetic modifications that can return to baseline modification levels after stress cessation. Nevertheless, some of the modifications may be stable and passed on as stress memory, potentially allowing them to be inherited across generations, whereas some of the modifications are reactivated during sexual reproduction or embryogenesis. Several stress-related genes are involved in stress memory inheritance by turning on and off transcription profiles and epigenetic changes. Vernalization is the best example of somatic stress memory. Changes in the chromatin structure of the Flowering Locus C (FLC) gene, a MADS-box transcription factor (TF), maintain cold stress memory during mitosis. FLC expression suppresses flowering at high levels during winter; and during vernalization, B3 TFs, cold memory cis-acting element and polycomb repressive complex 1 and 2 (PRC1 and 2) silence FLC activation. In contrast, the repression of SQUAMOSA promoter-binding protein-like (SPL) TF and the activation of Heat Shock TF (HSFA2) are required for heat stress memory. However, it is still unclear how stress memory is inherited by offspring, and the integrated view of the regulatory mechanisms of stress memory and mitotic and meiotic heritable changes in plants is still scarce. Thus, in this review, we focus on the epigenetic regulation of stress memory and discuss the application of new technologies in developing epigenetic modifications to improve stress memory.
PMID: 36570899
Front Plant Sci , IF:5.753 , 2022 , V13 : P1042375 doi: 10.3389/fpls.2022.1042375
Does phenotyping of Hypericum secondary metabolism reveal a tolerance to biotic/abiotic stressors?
Department of Genetics, Institute of Biology and Ecology, Faculty of Science, Pavol Jozef Safarik University in Kosice, Kosice, Slovakia.
In this review we summarize the current knowledge about the changes in Hypericum secondary metabolism induced by biotic/abiotic stressors. It is known that the extreme environmental conditions activate signaling pathways leading to triggering of enzymatic and non-enzymatic defense systems, which stimulate production of secondary metabolites with antioxidant and protective effects. Due to several groups of bioactive compounds including naphthodianthrones, acylphloroglucinols, flavonoids, and phenylpropanes, the world-wide Hypericum perforatum represents a high-value medicinal crop of Hypericum genus, which belongs to the most diverse genera within flowering plants. The summary of the up-to-date knowledge reveals a relationship between the level of defense-related phenolic compounds and interspecific differences in the stress tolerance. The chlorogenic acid, and flavonoids, namely the amentoflavone, quercetin or kaempferol glycosides have been reported as the most defense-related metabolites associated with plant tolerance against stressful environment including temperature, light, and drought, in association with the biotic stimuli resulting from plant-microbe interactions. As an example, the species-specific cold-induced phenolics profiles of 10 Hypericum representatives of different provenances cultured in vitro are illustrated in the case-study. Principal component analysis revealed a relationship between the level of defense-related phenolic compounds and interspecific differences in the stress tolerance indicating a link between the provenance of Hypericum species and inherent mechanisms of cold tolerance. The underlying metabolome alterations along with the changes in the activities of ROS-scavenging enzymes, and non-enzymatic physiological markers are discussed. Given these data it can be anticipated that some Hypericum species native to divergent habitats, with interesting high-value secondary metabolite composition and predicted high tolerance to biotic/abiotic stresses would attract the attention as valuable sources of bioactive compounds for many medicinal purposes.
PMID: 36531362
Front Plant Sci , IF:5.753 , 2022 , V13 : P1092857 doi: 10.3389/fpls.2022.1092857
Transcriptomic analysis unravels the molecular response of Lonicera japonica leaves to chilling stress.
Key Laboratory of Plant Secondary Metabolism and Regulation of Zhejiang Province, Zhejiang Sci-Tech University, Hangzhou, China.; College of Life Sciences and Medicine, Zhejiang Sci-Tech University, Hangzhou, China.; Department of Techonology Center, Shandong Anran Nanometer Industry Development Company Limited, Weihai, China.
Lonicera japonica is not only an important resource of traditional Chinese medicine, but also has very high horticultural value. Studies have been performed on the physiological responses of L. japonica leaves to chilling, however, the molecular mechanism underlying the low temperature-induced leaves morphological changes remains unclear. In this study, it has been demonstrated that the ratio of pigments content including anthocyanins, chlorophylls, and carotenoids was significantly altered in response to chilling condition, resulting in the color transformation of leaves from green to purple. Transcriptomic analysis showed there were 10,329 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) co-expressed during chilling stress. DEGs were mainly mapped to secondary metabolism, cell wall, and minor carbohydrate. The upregulated genes (UGs) were mainly enriched in protein metabolism, transport, and signaling, while UGs in secondary metabolism were mainly involved in phenylpropaoids-flavonoids pathway (PFP) and carotenoids pathway (CP). Protein-protein interaction analysis illustrated that 21 interacted genes including CAX3, NHX2, ACA8, and ACA9 were enriched in calcium transport/potassium ion transport. BR biosynthesis pathway related genes and BR insensitive (BRI) were collectively induced by chilling stress. Furthermore, the expression of genes involved in anthocyanins and CPs as well as the content of chlorogenic acid (CGA) and luteoloside were increased in leaves of L. japonica under stress. Taken together, these results indicate that the activation of PFP and CP in leaves of L. japonica under chilling stress, largely attributed to the elevation of calcium homeostasis and stimulation of BR signaling, which then regulated the PFP/CP related transcription factors.
PMID: 36618608
Theor Appl Genet , IF:5.699 , 2023 Jan , V136 (1) : P1-11 doi: 10.1007/s00122-023-04261-w
COG2 negatively regulates chilling tolerance through cell wall components altered in rice.
The Key Laboratory of Plant Molecular Physiology, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100093, China.; University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China.; Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Crop Genetics and Physiology/Co-Innovation Centre for Modern Production Technology of Grain Crops, Key Laboratory of Plant Functional Genomics of the Ministry of Education, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou, 225009, China.; The Innovative Academy of Seed Design, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100093, China.; The Key Laboratory of Plant Molecular Physiology, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100093, China. chongk@ibcas.ac.cn.; University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China. chongk@ibcas.ac.cn.; The Innovative Academy of Seed Design, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100093, China. chongk@ibcas.ac.cn.
Chilling-tolerant QTL gene COG2 encoded an extensin and repressed chilling tolerance by affecting the compositions of cell wall. Rice as a major crop is susceptible to chilling stress. Chilling tolerance is a complex trait controlled by multiple quantitative trait loci (QTLs). Here, we identify a QTL gene, COG2, that negatively regulates cold tolerance at seedling stage in rice. COG2 overexpression transgenic plants are sensitive to cold, whereas knockout transgenic lines enhance chilling tolerance. Natural variation analysis shows that Hap1 is a specific haplotype in japonica/Geng rice and correlates with chilling tolerance. The SNP1 in COG2 promoter is a specific divergency and leads to the difference in the expression level of COG2 between japonica/Geng and indica/Xian cultivars. COG2 encodes a cell wall-localized extensin and affects the compositions of cell wall, including pectin and cellulose, to defense the chilling stress. The results extend the understanding of the adaptation to the environment and provide an editing target for molecular design breeding of cold tolerance in rice.
PMID: 36680595
J Agric Food Chem , IF:5.279 , 2022 Dec , V70 (50) : P15703-15714 doi: 10.1021/acs.jafc.2c05949
Metabolic Profiling of Oryza sativa L. Triggered by Chilling Stress Using Ultraperformance Liquid Chromatography Coupled with Quadrupole/Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometry (UPLC-QTOF-MS) with Transcriptome Analysis.
College of Life Sciences, Jiangxi Normal University, Nanchang 330022, China.; School of Life Sciences, Nanchang Normal University, Nanchang 330031, China.; School of Life Sciences, Nanchang University, Nanchang 330031, China.; College of Food and Health, Beijing Technology and Business University (BTBU), Beijing 100048, China.
Low temperature, a major abiotic stress, often causes molecular changes in crops, which leads to metabolic disturbances and probably affects crop yield. In this study, chilling stress induced distinct metabolic profiles associated with transcriptome regulation, exhibiting great metabolic differences between Qiutianxiaoting (japonica) and 93-11 (indica). In total, 41 and 58 differential metabolites were screened and identified in Qiutianxiaoting and 93-11, respectively. Five key metabolites were screened in response to chilling stress, which were involved or related to different metabolic pathways. Moreover, starch and sucrose metabolism, aminoacyl-tRNA biosynthesis, and phenylpropanoid biosynthesis were significantly enriched in Qiutianxiaoting to maintain cellular homeostasis. Aminoacyl-tRNA biosynthesis and antioxidation metabolism were significantly enriched in 93-11, but disorders of the metabolome and transcriptome occurred at recovery stage. The results could provide some useful information for in-depth understanding of cold-resistant mechanisms, as well as reference for the selection and breeding of rice varieties.
PMID: 36473722
Biology (Basel) , IF:5.079 , 2022 Dec , V11 (12) doi: 10.3390/biology11121814
Comprehensive Identification and Expression Profiling of the VQ Motif-Containing Gene Family in Brassica juncea.
Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Utilization and Conservation of Food and Medicinal Resources in Northern Region, Shaoguan University, Shaoguan 512000, China.; Henry Fok College of Biology and Agriculture, Shaoguan University, Shaoguan 512000, China.; College of Bioscience and Bioengineering, Jiangxi Agricultural University, Nanchang 330045, China.
Valine-glutamine (VQ) motif-containing proteins are a class of highly conserved transcriptional regulators in plants and play key roles in plant growth, development, and response to various stresses. However, the VQ family genes in mustard have not yet been comprehensively identified and analyzed. In this study, a total of 120 VQ family genes (BjuVQ1 to BjuVQ120), which were unevenly distributed on 18 chromosomes (AA_Chr01 to BB_Chr08), were characterized in mustard. A phylogenetic tree analysis revealed that the BjuVQ proteins were clustered into nine distinct groups (groups I to IX), and members in the same group shared a highly conserved motif composition. A gene structure analysis suggested that most BjuVQ genes were intronless. A gene duplication analysis revealed that 254 pairs of BjuVQ genes were segmentally duplicated and one pair was tandemly duplicated. Expression profiles obtained from RNA-seq data demonstrated that most BjuVQ genes have different gene expression profiles in different organs, including leaf, stem, root, flower bud, pod, and seed. In addition, over half of the BjuVQ genes were differentially expressed at some time points under low temperature treatment. The qRT-PCR data revealed that BjuVQ23, BjuVQ55, BjuVQ57, BjuVQ67, BjuVQ100, and BjuVQ117 were upregulated in response to cold stress. Taken together, our study provides new insights into the roles of different BjuVQ genes in mustard and their possible roles in growth and development, as well as in response to cold stress.
PMID: 36552323
Biology (Basel) , IF:5.079 , 2023 Jan , V12 (1) doi: 10.3390/biology12010107
Gesneriads, a Source of Resurrection and Double-Tolerant Species: Proposal of New Desiccation- and Freezing-Tolerant Plants and Their Physiological Adaptations.
Department of Plant Biology and Ecology, University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), Barrio Sarriena s/n, 48940 Leioa, Spain.
Gesneriaceae is a pantropical family of plants that, thanks to their lithophytic and epiphytic growth forms, have developed different strategies for overcoming water scarcity. Desiccation tolerance or "resurrection" ability is one of them: a rare phenomenon among angiosperms that involves surviving with very little relative water content in their tissues until water is again available. Physiological responses of desiccation tolerance are also activated during freezing temperatures, a stress that many of the resurrection gesneriads suffer due to their mountainous habitat. Therefore, research on desiccation- and freezing-tolerant gesneriads is a great opportunity for crop improvement, and some of them have become reference resurrection angiosperms (Dorcoceras hygrometrica, Haberlea rhodopensis and Ramonda myconi). However, their difficult indoor cultivation and outdoor accessibility are major obstacles for their study. Therefore, this review aims to identify phylogenetic, geoclimatic, habitat, and morphological features in order to propose new tentative resurrection gesneriads as a way of making them more reachable to the scientific community. Additionally, shared and species-specific physiological responses to desiccation and freezing stress have been gathered as a stress response metabolic basis of the family.
PMID: 36671798
Metabolites , IF:4.932 , 2022 Dec , V12 (12) doi: 10.3390/metabo12121216
Dendrobium Multi-Omics Reveal Lipid Remodeling in Response to Freezing.
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.
Freezing damage is a common phenomenon responsible for reduced yields of economic crops. Regulation of lipid metabolism plays an important role in plant growth and adaptation during freezing. We previously carried out transcriptome and untargeted metabolome analyses to determine the regulation of flavonol and anthocyanin biosynthesis during freezing treatment (FT) and post-freezing recovery (FR) in Dendrobium catenatum. However, changes in lipid levels are hard to confirm by untargeted metabolomics analysis alone. Regulation of lipid metabolism in response to freezing is largely unknown in Dendrobium. In this study, a multi-omics strategy was used to offer a better means of studying metabolic flow during FT and FR. To this end, 6976 proteins were identified by the 4D_label-free proteome, including 5343 quantified proteins. For each of the two conditions, we enriched differentially accumulated proteins (DAPs) into 15 gene ontology (GO) terms, including primary metabolism, lipid metabolism, and photosynthesis processes. We also identified 7 lipid categories and 3672 lipid species using lipidome assays. We found significant remodeling occurring in the phospholipid category during FT and FR. We also found that most sphingolipids were significantly upregulated. An integrated multi-omics analysis revealed significant changes in the expression levels of 141 mRNAs and encoding proteins under both FT and FR conditions. During FT, phospholipase A (PLA) and phospholipase D (PLD) were associated with phospholipid editing and galactolipid remodeling. These results provide valuable new insights into how the freezing tolerance of D. catenatum might be improved by genetic engineering.
PMID: 36557254
Plant Sci , IF:4.729 , 2022 Dec , V328 : P111570 doi: 10.1016/j.plantsci.2022.111570
The role of shoot-derived RNAs transported to plant root in response to abiotic stresses.
Beijing Key Laboratory of Growth and Developmental Regulation for Protected Vegetable Crops, China Agricultural University, Beijing, China.; Beijing Key Laboratory of Growth and Developmental Regulation for Protected Vegetable Crops, China Agricultural University, Beijing, China. Electronic address: zhangwenna@cau.edu.cn.
A large number of RNA molecules are transported over long-distance between shoots and roots via phloem in higher plants. Mobile RNA signals are important for plants to tackle abiotic stresses. Shoot-derived mobile RNAs can be involved in the response to different developmental or environmental signals in the root. Some environmental conditions such as climate change, water deficit, nutrient deficiency challenge modern agriculture with more expeditious abiotic stress conditions. Root architecture determines the ability of water and nutrient uptake and further abiotic stress tolerance, and shoot tissue also determines the balance between shoot-root relationship in plant growth and adaptations. Thus, it is necessary to understand the roles of shoot-derived RNA signals and their potential function in roots upon abiotic stresses in the model plants (Arabidopsis thaliana and Nicotiana benthamiana) and agricultural crops. In this review, we summarize the so-far discovered shoot-derived mobile RNA transportation to the root under abiotic stress conditions, e.g. drought, cold stress and nutrient deficiencies. Furthermore, we will focus on the biological relevance and the potential roles of these RNAs in root development and stress responses which will be an asset for the future breeding strategies.
PMID: 36563939
Plant Sci , IF:4.729 , 2023 Jan , V326 : P111525 doi: 10.1016/j.plantsci.2022.111525
Transcriptomic and hormonal analysis of the roots of maize seedlings grown hydroponically at low temperature.
Departamento de Biologia Vegetal, Ecologia y Ciencias de la Tierra, Universidad de Extremadura, 06006 Badajoz, Spain. Electronic address: ifrierom@alumnos.unex.es.; Instituto de Bioingenieria, Universidad Miguel Hernandez, 03202 Elche, Spain. Electronic address: elarriba@umh.es.; Departamento de Nutricion Vegetal, CEBAS-CSIC, 30100 Murcia, Spain. Electronic address: pmelgarejo@cebas.csic.es.; Instituto de Bioingenieria, Universidad Miguel Hernandez, 03202 Elche, Spain. Electronic address: mjustamante@umh.es.; Area de Agronomia de Cultivos Lenosos y Horticolas, Instituto de Investigaciones Agrarias "La Orden-Valdesequera" (CICYTEX), Junta de Extremadura, 06187 Badajoz, Spain. Electronic address: maria.alarcon@juntaex.es.; Departamento de Nutricion Vegetal, CEBAS-CSIC, 30100 Murcia, Spain. Electronic address: alfonsoa.albacete@carm.es.; Departamento de Biologia Vegetal, Ecologia y Ciencias de la Tierra, Universidad de Extremadura, 06006 Badajoz, Spain. Electronic address: salguero@unex.es.; Instituto de Bioingenieria, Universidad Miguel Hernandez, 03202 Elche, Spain. Electronic address: jmperez@umh.es.
Prolonged cold stress has a strong effect on plant growth and development, especially in subtropical crops such as maize. Soil temperature limits primary root elongation, mainly during early seedling establishment. However, little is known about how moderate temperature fluctuations affect root growth at the molecular and physiological levels. We have studied root tips of young maize seedlings grown hydroponically at 30 masculineC and after a short period (up to 24 h) of moderate cooling (20 masculineC). We found that both cell division and cell elongation in the root apical meristem are affected by temperature. Time-course analyses of hormonal and transcriptomic profiles were achieved after temperature reduction from 30 masculineC to 20 masculineC. Our results highlighted a complex regulation of endogenous pathways leading to adaptive root responses to moderate cooling conditions.
PMID: 36328179
Plant Sci , IF:4.729 , 2022 Dec , V325 : P111481 doi: 10.1016/j.plantsci.2022.111481
StLTO1, a lumen thiol oxidoreductase in Solanum tuberosum L., enhances the cold resistance of potato plants.
College of Life Science, State Key Laboratory of Crop Biology, Shandong Key Laboratory of Crop Biology, Shandong Agricultural University, Taian, 271018, China.; Department of Plant Physiology, Slovak University of Agriculture, Tr. A. Hlinku 2, 949 76 Nitra, Slovak Republic.; College of Life Science, State Key Laboratory of Crop Biology, Shandong Key Laboratory of Crop Biology, Shandong Agricultural University, Taian, 271018, China. Electronic address: xhyang@sdau.edu.cn.
Cold stress reduces plant photosynthesis and increases the accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in plants, thereby dramatically affecting plant growth, crop productivity and quality. Here, we report that lumen thiol oxidoreductase 1 (StLTO1), a vitamin K epoxide reductase (VKOR)-like protein in the thylakoid membrane of Solanum tuberosum L., enhances the cold tolerance of potato plants. Under normal conditions, overexpression of StLTO1 in plants promoted plant growth. In addition, potato plants overexpressing StLTO1 displayed enhanced photosynthetic capacity and increased capacity for scavenging ROS compared to StLTO1 knockdown and wild-type potato plants under cold conditions. Overexpression of StLTO1 in potato plants also improved cold-regulated (COR) gene expression after cold stress. Our results suggest that StLTO1 acts as a positive regulator of cold resistance in potato plants.
PMID: 36181944
Plant Sci , IF:4.729 , 2022 Dec , V325 : P111463 doi: 10.1016/j.plantsci.2022.111463
CsCBF5 depletion impairs cold tolerance in tea plants.
State Key Laboratory of Tea Plant Biology and Utilization, Anhui Agricultural University, Hefei 230036, China.; College of Horticulture, Henan Agricultural University, Zhengzhou, Henan, China.; State Key Laboratory of Tea Plant Biology and Utilization, Anhui Agricultural University, Hefei 230036, China; College of Horticulture, Henan Agricultural University, Zhengzhou, Henan, China.; State Key Laboratory of Tea Plant Biology and Utilization, Anhui Agricultural University, Hefei 230036, China. Electronic address: Liyeyun360@163.com.
CBFs play important roles in tea plant cold tolerance. In our study, 16 tea varieties were used to investigate the relationship between the expression level of CsCBFs and cold tolerance in field experiments. A strong and positive correlation was found between cold stress-regulated CsCBF1, CsCBF3 and CsCBF5 expression levels (R(2) > 0.8) in tea mesophyll cells and cold tolerance in 16 tea varieties. A previous study reported that CsCBF1 and CsCBF3 were important components associated with cold tolerance in tea plants; thus, the function of CsCBF5 in the CsCBF family was targeted. Our previous study reported that CsCBF5 was localized in the nucleus and exhibited transcriptional activity. In the current study, MDA content in leaves was significantly increased in CsCBF5-silenced leaves, which exhibited poor cold tolerance, compared with WT plants under cold stress. In contrast, increased germination rates and antioxidant enzyme activities under cold conditions compared with WT plants. Furthermore, CsCBF5 overexpression in Arabidopsis promoted the expression levels of the cold-regulated genes AtCOR15a, AtCOR78, AtERD4 and AtRD29B; however, the expression levels of downstream genes, including CsCOR47, CsCOR413, CsERD4 and CsRD29B, were significantly reduced in CsCBF5-silenced tea leaves. Taken together, our results indicated that CsCBF5 could function as a positive regulator in the cold stress response.
PMID: 36126878
Plant Sci , IF:4.729 , 2022 Dec , V325 : P111450 doi: 10.1016/j.plantsci.2022.111450
vvi-miPEP172b and vvi-miPEP3635b increase cold tolerance of grapevine by regulating the corresponding MIRNA genes.
Department of Plant Science, School of Agriculture and Biology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China; State Key Laboratory of Crop Biology, College of Horticulture Science and Engineering, Shandong Agricultural University, Tai'an 271000, China.; Department of Horticulture, College of Agriculture, Shihezi University, Shihezi 832003, Xinjiang, China; Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps Key Laboratory of Special Fruits and Vegetables Cultivation Physiology and Germplasm Resources Utilization, Shihezi 832003, Xinjiang, China.; Department of Plant Science, School of Agriculture and Biology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China.; Department of Plant Science, School of Agriculture and Biology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China. Electronic address: chaoma2015@sjtu.edu.cn.
As a kind of small molecular weight proteins, many peptides have been discovered, including peptides encoded by pri-miRNA (miPEPs). Similar as traditional phytohormone or signaling molecular, these peptides participate in numerous plant growth processes. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) play an important regulatory role in plant stress response. While the roles of miPEPs in response to abiotic stress has not been studied now. In this study, to explore whether miPEPs could contribute to low temperature (4 masculineC) tolerance of plants, the expression pattern of 23 different vvi-MIRs were analyzed by qRT-PCR in 'Thompson Seedless' (Vitis vinifera) plantlets under cold stress (4 masculineC) firstly, and vvi-MIR172b and vvi-MIR3635b which showed an elevated expression levels were selected to identify miPEPs. Through transient expression, one small open reading frame (sORF) in each of the two pri-miRNAs could increase the expression of corresponding vvi-MIR, and the amino acid sequences of sORFs were named vvi-miPEP172b and vvi-miPEP3635b, respectively. The synthetic vvi-miPEP172b and vvi-miPEP3635b were applied to the grape plantlets, and the tissue culture plantlets exhibited a higher cold tolerance compared with the control groups. These results revealed the effective roles of miPEPs in plant cold stress resistance for the first time, providing a theoretical basis for the future application of miPEPs to agricultural production.
PMID: 36075277
Plant Cell Rep , IF:4.57 , 2023 Jan doi: 10.1007/s00299-022-02972-w
VaSUS2 confers cold tolerance in transgenic tomato and Arabidopsis by regulation of sucrose metabolism and ROS homeostasis.
College of Horticulture, Gansu Agricultural University, Lanzhou, 730070, China.; College of Horticulture, Gansu Agricultural University, Lanzhou, 730070, China. maojuan@gsau.edu.cn.; College of Horticulture, Gansu Agricultural University, Lanzhou, 730070, China. bhch@gsau.edu.cn.
VaSUS2 enhances cold tolerance of transgenic tomato and Arabidopsis by regulating sucrose metabolism and improving antioxidant enzymes activity. Sucrose synthetase (SUS) is a key enzyme of sugar metabolism, and plays an important role in response to abiotic stress in plant. However, the function of VaSUS2 remains unknown in cold tolerance. Here, the cloning and functional characterization of the plasma membrane-localized VaSUS2 gene isolated from Vitis amurensis was studied. The transcript level of VaSUS2 was up-regulated under cold stress in Vitis amurensis. Heterologous expression of VaSUS2 in tomato increased SUS activity, which promoted the accumulation of glucose and fructose under cold treatment. The transgenic tomato and Arabidopsis exhibited higher levels of antioxidant enzymes activity, lower relative electrolyte leakage (REL), malondialdehyde (MDA) and hydrogen peroxide (H(2)O(2)) content compared to wild type under cold stress. Importantly, the ability of scavenging reactive oxygen species (ROS) in transgenic plants was significantly improved. Moreover, yeast two-hybrid (Y2H) indicated that VaSnRK1 might be a potential interaction protein of VaSUS2. qRT-PCR showed that sucrose metabolism-related genes SlSUS, SlSPS and SlINV were significantly up-regulated in transgenic tomatoes. Meanwhile, the expression levels of antioxidant enzyme genes and cold-related genes CBF1, COR47 and ICE1 were up-regulated in transgenic plants. Taken together, these results suggested that VaSUS2 was involved in cold tolerance by increasing the levels of soluble sugars, improving the activity of antioxidant enzymes, and up-regulating the expression of cold-related genes in transgenic tomatoes and Arabidopsis.
PMID: 36645437
Plant Cell Rep , IF:4.57 , 2023 Jan , V42 (1) : P197-210 doi: 10.1007/s00299-022-02949-9
StICE1 enhances plant cold tolerance by directly upregulating StLTI6A expression.
State Key Laboratory of Crop Biology, Shandong Key Laboratory of Crop Biology, College of Life Science, Shandong Agricultural University, Taian, 271018, China.; Department of Plant Physiology, Slovak University of Agriculture, A. Hlinku 2, Nitra, 94976, Slovak Republic.; State Key Laboratory of Crop Biology, Shandong Key Laboratory of Crop Biology, College of Life Science, Shandong Agricultural University, Taian, 271018, China. xhyang@sdau.edu.cn.
Under cold conditions, StICE1 enhances plant cold tolerance by upregulating StLTI6A expression to maintain the cell membrane stability. Cold stress affects potato plants growth and development, crop productivity and quality. The ICE-CBF-COR regulatory cascade is the well-known pathway in response to cold stress in plants. ICE1, as a MYC-like bHLH transcription factor, can regulate the expressions of CBFs. However, whether ICE1 could regulate other genes still need to be explored. Our results showed that overexpressing ICE1 from potato in Arabidopsis thaliana could enhance plant cold tolerance. Under cold stress, overexpressed StICE1 in plants improved the stability of cell membrane, enhanced scavenging capacity of reactive oxygen species and increased expression levels of CBFs and COR genes. Furthermore, StICE1 could bind to the promoter of StLTI6A gene, which could maintain the stability of the cell membrane, to upregulate StLTI6A expression under cold conditions. Our findings revealed that StICE1 could directly regulate StLTI6A, CBF and COR genes expression to response to cold stress.
PMID: 36371722
Physiol Plant , IF:4.5 , 2022 Dec : Pe13837 doi: 10.1111/ppl.13837
Temporal cell wall changes during cold acclimation and deacclimation and their potential involvement in freezing tolerance and growth.
Graduate School of Science & Engineering, Saitama University, 255 Shimo-Okubo, Sakura-ku, Saitama, Japan.
Plants adapt to freezing stress through cold acclimation, which is induced by non-freezing low temperatures and accompanied by growth arrest. A later increase in temperature after cold acclimation leads to rapid loss of freezing tolerance and growth resumption, a process called deacclimation. Appropriate regulation of the trade-off between freezing tolerance and growth is necessary for efficient plant development in a changing environment. The cell wall, which mainly consists of polysaccharide polymers, is involved in both freezing tolerance and growth. Still, it is unclear how the balance between freezing tolerance and growth is affected during cold acclimation and deacclimation by the changes in cell wall structure and what role is played by its monosaccharide composition. Therefore, to elucidate the regulatory mechanisms controlling freezing tolerance and growth during cold acclimation and deacclimation, we investigated cell wall changes in detail by sequential fractionation and monosaccharide composition analysis in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana, for which a plethora of information and mutant lines are available. We found that arabinogalactan proteins and pectic galactan changed in close coordination with changes in freezing tolerance and growth during cold acclimation and deacclimation. On the other hand, arabinan and xyloglucan did not return to non-acclimation levels after deacclimation but stabilized at cold acclimation levels. This indicates that deacclimation does not completely restore cell wall composition to the non-acclimated state but rather changes it to a specific novel composition that is probably a consequence of the loss of freezing tolerance and provides conditions for growth resumption. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
PMID: 36461890
Physiol Plant , IF:4.5 , 2022 Dec : Pe13846 doi: 10.1111/ppl.13846
Mechanisms of cold-induced immunity in plants.
Genome-Edited Crop Development Group, Institute of Agrobiological Sciences, National Agriculture and Food Research Organization (NARO), 3-1-3 Kannondai, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan.; Faculty of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Tsukuba, 1-1-1 Tennodai, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan.
Overwintering plants acquire substantial levels of freezing tolerance through cold acclimation or winter hardening. This process is essential for the plants survival to harsh winter conditions. In the areas where persistent snow cover lasts several months, plants are protected from freezing but are, however, exposed to other harsh conditions such as dark, cold, and high humidity. These conditions facilitate infection of psychrophilic pathogens, which are termed 'snow molds'. To fight against infection of snow molds, overwintering plants develop disease resistance via the process of cold acclimation. Compared with pathogen-induced disease resistance, the molecular mechanisms of cold-induced disease resistance have yet to be fully elucidated. In this review, we outline the recent progress in our understanding of disease resistance acquired through cold acclimation. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
PMID: 36546699
Sci Rep , IF:4.379 , 2023 Jan , V13 (1) : P1555 doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-28311-x
Screening and validating of endogenous reference genes in Chlorella sp. TLD 6B under abiotic stress.
College of Life Sciences, Shihezi University, Shihezi, Xinjiang, 832000, People's Republic of China.; College of Life Sciences, Shihezi University, Shihezi, Xinjiang, 832000, People's Republic of China. jianfengg@shzu.edu.cn.; College of Life Sciences, Shihezi University, Shihezi, Xinjiang, 832000, People's Republic of China. fulongch@shzu.edu.cn.
Chlorella sp. TLD 6B, a microalgae growing in the Taklamakan Desert, Xinjiang of China, is a good model material for studying the physiological and environmental adaptation mechanisms of plants in their arid habitats, as its adaptation to the harsh desert environment has led to its strong resistance. However, when using real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) to analyze the gene expression of this algae under abiotic stress, it is essential to find the suitable endogenous reference genes so to obtain reliable results. This study assessed the expression stability of 9 endogenous reference genes of Chlorella sp. TLD 6B under four abiotic stresses (drought, salt, cold and heat). These genes were selected based on the analysis results calculated by the three algorithmic procedures of geNorm, NormFinder, and BestKeeper, which were ranked by refinder. Our research showed that 18S and GTP under drought stress, 18S and IDH under salt stress, CYP and 18S under cold stress, GTP and IDH under heat stress were the most stable endogenous reference genes. Moreover, UBC and 18S were the most suitable endogenous reference gene combinations for all samples. In contrast, GAPDH and alpha-TUB were the two least stable endogenous reference genes in all experimental samples. Additionally, the selected genes have been verified to be durable and reliable by detecting POD and PXG3 genes using above endogenous reference genes. The identification of reliable endogenous reference genes guarantees more accurate RT-qPCR quantification for Chlorella sp. TLD 6B, facilitating functional genomics studies of deserts Chlorella as well as the mining of resistance genes.
PMID: 36707665
Plant Physiol Biochem , IF:4.27 , 2023 Jan , V194 : P418-439 doi: 10.1016/j.plaphy.2022.11.034
Drought priming triggers diverse metabolic adjustments and induces chilling tolerance in chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.).
Centre for Biosciences, School of Basic and Applied Sciences, Central University of Punjab, Bathinda, 151401, India.; Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics, Punjab Agriculture University, Ludhiana, 141004, India.; Department of Botany, Panjab University, Chandigarh, 160014, India.; Centre for Biosciences, School of Basic and Applied Sciences, Central University of Punjab, Bathinda, 151401, India; Department of Botany, School of Basic Sciences, Central University of Punjab, Bathinda, 151401, India. Electronic address: sanjeevpuchd@gmail.com.
Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) suffers from chilling stress at the reproductive stage (<15 degrees C) which leads to significant yield loss. This study presents a comprehensive plant response to drought priming and its effect on chilling tolerance during the reproductive stage in two chickpea cultivars PBG1 and PBG5. Lipidome profiling (Fatty acid methyl esters analysis), metabolome profiling (GC-MS based untargeted analysis), fatty acid desaturases and antioxidative gene expression (qRT-PCR) were analyzed to monitor physiological and biochemical events after priming during flowering, podding and seed filling stages. Drought priming alleviated membrane damage and chlorophyll degradation by increasing membrane unsaturated fatty acids (18:3) along with up-regulation of various fatty acid desaturases (CaFADs) genes and antioxidative machinery during flowering and improved seed yield in PBG5. PCA, HCA, and KEGG pathway analysis of 87 identified metabolites showed that metabolites were regulated differently in both cultivars under non-primed and primed conditions. The plant response was more apparent at flowering and podding stages which coincided with chilling temperature (<15 degrees C). Drought priming stimulated many important genes, especially FADs, antioxidative proteins and accumulation of key metabolites (proline and TCA intermediates) required for defense especially in PBG5. This explains that plant's response to drought priming not only depends on developmental stage, and temperature regime (<15 degrees C) but also on the genotypic-specificity.
PMID: 36493590
Plant Physiol Biochem , IF:4.27 , 2023 Jan , V194 : P52-59 doi: 10.1016/j.plaphy.2022.10.032
Terahertz spectroscopic monitoring and analysis of citrus leaf water status under low temperature stress.
College of Instrumentation and Electrical Engineering, Jilin University, Changchun, Jilin, 130061, China; Chongqing Institute of Green and Intelligent Technology, Chinese Academy of Science, Chongqing, 400714, China.; Citrus Research Institute, Southwest University, Chongqing, 400712, China.; Chongqing Institute of Green and Intelligent Technology, Chinese Academy of Science, Chongqing, 400714, China; Chongqing School, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chongqing, 400714, China.; College of Instrumentation and Electrical Engineering, Jilin University, Changchun, Jilin, 130061, China; Chongqing Institute of Green and Intelligent Technology, Chinese Academy of Science, Chongqing, 400714, China. Electronic address: hcui@jlu.edu.cn.; Chongqing Institute of Green and Intelligent Technology, Chinese Academy of Science, Chongqing, 400714, China; Chongqing School, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chongqing, 400714, China. Electronic address: yanshihan@cigit.ac.cn.
Low temperature stress, in the form of chilling and freezing, is one of the major environmental factors impacting on citrus yield, which changes plant's water state and results in the crops' sub-health or injury. The innovative terahertz (THz) spectroscopy and imaging based sensing technology has been shown to be a suitable tool for plant leaf water status determination, due to THz radiation's innate sensitivity to hydrogen bond vibration in aqueous solutions, which is usually related to plant phenotype change. We demonstrate experimentally that the THz absorption coefficient of leaf could be used for distinguishing plant's physiological stress status, exhibiting clear decreasing or increasing trend under chilling or freezing stress respectively. The underlying rationale might be that membrane damage shows a diverse pattern, changing the intra- or extra-cellular liquid environments, likely being linked to the various THz spectral characteristics. There were different adaptations in leaf morphology, leading to different leaf density, which in turn affects the water volume fraction. Moreover, different patterns of the dynamic equilibrium state of free water and bound water under chilling and freezing treatment were revealed by THz spectroscopy. Here, THz spectroscopic monitoring has shown unique potential for judging citrus's low temperature stress state through bio-water detection and discrimination.
PMID: 36375327
BMC Plant Biol , IF:4.215 , 2023 Jan , V23 (1) : P36 doi: 10.1186/s12870-023-04053-w
The multifaceted roles of Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi in peanut responses to salt, drought, and cold stress.
Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Dryland Farming Technology,College of Agronomy, Qingdao Agricultural University, Qingdao, 266109, China.; Institute of Crop Germplasm Resources, Shandong Academy of Agricultural Sciences (SAAS), Jinan, 250100, China.; Shandong Peanut Research Institute, Qingdao, 266199, China.; Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Dryland Farming Technology,College of Agronomy, Qingdao Agricultural University, Qingdao, 266109, China. tongsi@qau.edu.cn.
BACKGROUND: Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi (AMF) are beneficial microorganisms in soil-plant interactions; however, the underlying mechanisms regarding their roles in legumes environmental stress remain elusive. Present trials were undertaken to study the effect of AMF on the ameliorating of salt, drought, and cold stress in peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.) plants. A new product of AMF combined with Rhizophagus irregularis SA, Rhizophagus clarus BEG142, Glomus lamellosum ON393, and Funneliformis mosseae BEG95 (1: 1: 1: 1, w/w/w/w) was inoculated with peanut and the physiological and metabolomic responses of the AMF-inoculated and non-inoculated peanut plants to salt, drought, and cold stress were comprehensively characterized, respectively. RESULTS: AMF-inoculated plants exhibited higher plant growth, leaf relative water content (RWC), net photosynthetic rate, maximal photochemical efficiency of photosystem II (PSII) (Fv/Fm), activities of antioxidant enzymes, and K(+): Na(+) ratio while lower leaf relative electrolyte conductivity (REC), concentration of malondialdehyde (MDA), and the accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) under stressful conditions. Moreover, the structures of chloroplast thylakoids and mitochondria in AMF-inoculated plants were less damaged by these stresses. Non-targeted metabolomics indicated that AMF altered numerous pathways associated with organic acids and amino acid metabolisms in peanut roots under both normal-growth and stressful conditions, which were further improved by the osmolytes accumulation data. CONCLUSION: This study provides a promising AMF product and demonstrates that this AMF combination could enhance peanut salt, drought, and cold stress tolerance through improving plant growth, protecting photosystem, enhancing antioxidant system, and regulating osmotic adjustment.
PMID: 36642709
BMC Plant Biol , IF:4.215 , 2022 Dec , V22 (1) : P593 doi: 10.1186/s12870-022-03990-2
Role of exogenous abscisic acid in freezing tolerance of mangrove Kandelia obovata under natural frost condition at near 32( degrees )N.
Wenzhou Key Laboratory of Resource Plant Innovation and Utilization, Zhejiang Institute of Subtropical Crops, Zhejiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Wenzhou, 325005, Zhejiang, China.; Key Laboratory of the Ministry of Education for Coastal and Wetland Ecosystems, College of the Environment and Ecology, Xiamen University, Xiamen, 361102, Fujian, China.; Marine Fisheries Research Institute of Jiangsu Province, Nantong, 226007, Jiangsu, China.; Wenzhou Municipal Key Laboratory for Applied Biomedical and Biopharmaceutical Informatics, Wenzhou-Kean University, Wenzhou, 325060, Zhejiang, China.; College of Life and Environmental Sciences, Wenzhou University, Wenzhou, 325000, Zhejiang, China.; Wenzhou Key Laboratory of Resource Plant Innovation and Utilization, Zhejiang Institute of Subtropical Crops, Zhejiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Wenzhou, 325005, Zhejiang, China. kingwwang@163.com.; Wenzhou Key Laboratory of Resource Plant Innovation and Utilization, Zhejiang Institute of Subtropical Crops, Zhejiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Wenzhou, 325005, Zhejiang, China. yzscqx@163.com.
BACKGROUND: Mangroves possess substantial ecological, social, and economic functions in tropical and subtropical coastal wetlands. Kandelia obovata is the most cold-resistance species among mangrove plants, with a widespread distribution in China that ranges from Sanya (18 degrees 12' N) to Wenzhou (28 degrees 20' N). Here, we explored the temporal variations in physiological status and transcriptome profiling of K. obovata under natural frost conditions at ~ 32(o)N, as well as the positive role of exogenous abscisic acid (ABA) in cold resistance. RESULTS: The soluble sugar (SS) and proline (Pro) functioned under freezing stress, of which SS was more important for K. obovata. Consistently, up-regulated DEGs responding to low temperature were significantly annotated to glycometabolism, such as starch and sucrose metabolism and amino sugar and nucleotide sugar metabolism. Notably, the top 2 pathways of KEGG enrichment were phenylpropanoid biosynthesis and flavonoid biosynthesis. For the antioxidant system, POD in conjunction with CAT removed hydrogen peroxide, and CAT appeared to be more important. The up-regulated DEGs responding to low temperature and ABA were also found to be enriched in arginine and proline metabolism, starch and sucrose metabolism, and peroxisome. Moreover, ABA triggered the expression of P5CS and P5CR, but inhibited the ProDH expression, which might contribute to Pro accumulation. Interestingly, there was no significant change in malondialdehyde (MDA) content during the cold event (P > 0.05), suggesting foliar application of ABA effectively alleviated the adverse effects of freezing stress on K. obovata by activating the antioxidant enzyme activity and increasing osmolytes accumulation, such as Pro, and the outcome was proportional to ABA concentration. CONCLUSIONS: This study deepened our understanding of the physiological characters and molecular mechanisms underlying the response of K. obovata to natural frost conditions and exogenous ABA at the field level, which could provide a sound theoretical foundation for expanding mangroves plantations in higher latitudes, as well as the development coastal landscape.
PMID: 36529723
BMC Plant Biol , IF:4.215 , 2022 Dec , V22 (1) : P585 doi: 10.1186/s12870-022-03973-3
Ammonia borane positively regulates cold tolerance in Brassica napus via hydrogen sulfide signaling.
College of Life Sciences, Laboratory Center of Life Sciences, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, 210095, Jiangsu, China.; National Key Laboratory of Crop Genetics and Germplasm Enhancement, Jiangsu Collaborative Innovation Center for Modern Crop Production, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, 210095, Jiangsu, China.; The Institute of Industrial CropsJiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Nanjing, 210014, Jiangsu, China.; College of Life Sciences, Laboratory Center of Life Sciences, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, 210095, Jiangsu, China. wbshenh@njau.edu.cn.
BACKGROUND: Cold stress adversely influences rapeseeds (Brassica napus L.) growth and yield during winter and spring seasons. Hydrogen (H(2)) is a potential gasotransmitter that is used to enhance tolerance against abiotic stress, including cold stress. However, convenience and stability are two crucial limiting factors upon the application of H(2) in field agriculture. To explore the application of H(2) in field, here we evaluated the role of ammonia borane (AB), a new candidate for a H(2) donor produced by industrial chemical production, in plant cold tolerance. RESULTS: The application with AB could obviously alleviate the inhibition of rapeseed seedling growth and reduce the oxidative damage caused by cold stress. The above physiological process was closely related to the increased antioxidant enzyme system and reestablished redox homeostasis. Importantly, cold stress-triggered endogenous H(2)S biosynthesis was further stimulated by AB addition. The removal or inhibition of H(2)S synthesis significantly abolished plant tolerance against cold stress elicited by AB. Further field experiments demonstrated that the phenotypic and physiological performances of rapeseed plants after challenged with cold stress in the winter and early spring seasons were significantly improved by administration with AB. Particularly, the most studied cold-stress response pathway, the ICE1-CBF-COR transcriptional cascade, was significantly up-regulated either. CONCLUSION: Overall, this study clearly observed the evidence that AB-increased tolerance against cold stress could be suitable for using in field agriculture by stimulation of H(2)S signaling.
PMID: 36517759
Planta , IF:4.116 , 2022 Dec , V257 (1) : P23 doi: 10.1007/s00425-022-04058-z
Auxin homeostasis in maize (Zea mays) is regulated via 1-O-indole-3-acetyl-myo-inositol synthesis at early stages of seedling development and under abiotic stress.
Department of Biochemistry, Nicolaus Copernicus University, Lwowska 1, 87-100, Torun, Poland. anciar@umk.pl.; Department of Biochemistry, Nicolaus Copernicus University, Lwowska 1, 87-100, Torun, Poland.; Department of Plant Physiology and Biotechnology, Nicolaus Copernicus University, Lwowska 1, 87-100, Torun, Poland.
Indole-3-acetyl-myo-inositol biosynthesis is regulated during maize seedling development and in response to drought and cold stress. The main purpose of this pathway is maintenance of auxin homeostasis. Indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) conjugation to myo-inositol is a part of a mechanism controlling free auxin level in maize. In this work, we investigated changes in the indole-3-acetyl-myo-inositol (IAInos) biosynthesis pathway in 3-d- and 6-d-old maize seedlings and germinating seeds as well as in seedlings subjected to drought and cold stress to evaluate a role of this pathway in maize development and stress response. In germinating seeds, activity of the enzymes involved in IAInos biosynthesis remains unchanged between 3-d- and 6-d-old material but increases in coleoptiles and radicles of the seedlings. Under cold stress, in germinating seeds and in coleoptiles, activity of the enzymes decreases and increases, respectively; however, it does not entail changes in auxin level. In drought-exposed germinating maize seeds, totally diminished activities of IAInos synthesis pathway enzymes resulted in almost twofold increase of free IAA content. Similar increase of auxin level was observed in radicles of drought-subjected seedlings together with lack of catalytic activity of the first enzyme of the pathway. Exogenous IAInos has no effect on the level of non-enzymatic antioxidant, ascorbate. It has also either no effect on the protein carbonylation and lipid peroxidation, or it affects it in a similar way as exogenously applied IAA and myo-inositol, which are products of IAInos hydrolysis. Thus, IAInos biosynthesis pathway acts in maize development and stress responses by regulation of free IAA concentration, as IAInos itself does not appear to have a distinct role in these processes.
PMID: 36539632
Genes (Basel) , IF:4.096 , 2022 Dec , V13 (12) doi: 10.3390/genes13122371
Genome-Wide Identification of bHLH Transcription Factor in Medicago sativa in Response to Cold Stress.
College of Forest, Central South University of Forestry and Technology, Changsha 410004, China.
Alfalfa represents one of the most important legume forages, and it is also applied as an organic fertilizer to improve soil quality. However, this perennial plant is native to warmer temperate regions, and its valuable cold-acclimation-related regulatory mechanisms are still less known. In higher plants, the bHLH transcription factors play pleiotropic regulatory roles in response to abiotic stresses. The recently released whole genome sequencing data of alfalfa allowed us to identify 469 MsbHLHs by multi-step homolog search. Herein, we primarily identified 65 MsbHLH genes that significantly upregulated under cold stress, and such bHLHs were classified into six clades according to their expression patterns. Interestingly, the phylogenetic analysis and conserved motif screening of the cold-induced MsbHLHs showed that the expression pattern is relatively varied in each bHLH subfamily, this result indicating that the 65 MsbHLHs may be involved in a complex cold-responsive regulatory network. Hence, we analyzed the TFBSs at promoter regions that unraveled a relatively conserved TFBS distribution with genes exhibiting similar expression patterns. Eventually, to verify the core components involved in long-term cold acclimation, we examined transcriptome data from a freezing-tolerant species (cv. Zhaodong) in the field and compared the expression of cold-sensitive/tolerant subspecies of alfalfa, giving 11 bHLH as candidates, which could be important for further cold-tolerance enhancement and molecular breeding through genetic engineering in alfalfa.
PMID: 36553638
Plants (Basel) , IF:3.935 , 2023 Jan , V12 (2) doi: 10.3390/plants12020288
Genome-Wide Identification and Expression Analysis of WRKY Transcription Factors in Siraitia siamensis.
College of Horticulture, Hunan Agricultural University, Changsha 410128, China.; CSIRO Agriculture and Food, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia.; School of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Capital Medical University, Beijing 100069, China.; Institute of Medicinal Plant Development, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Peking Union Medical College, Beijing 100193, China.; Guangxi Crop Genetic Improvement and Biotechnology Laboaratory, Guangxi Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Nanning 530007, China.; State Key Laboratory of Tree Genetics and Breeding, Research Institute of Forestry, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Beijing 100091, China.
WRKY transcription factors, as the largest gene family in higher plants, play an important role in various biological processes including growth and development, regulation of secondary metabolites, and stress response. In this study, we performed genome-wide identification and analysis of WRKY transcription factors in S. siamensis. A total of 59 SsWRKY genes were identified that were distributed on all 14 chromosomes, and these were classified into three major groups based on phylogenetic relationships. Each of these groups had similar conserved motifs and gene structures. We compared all the S. siamensis SsWRKY genes with WRKY genes identified from three diverse plant species, and the results implied that segmental duplication and tandem duplication play an important roles in the evolution processes of the WRKY gene family. Promoter region analysis revealed that SsWRKY genes included many cis-acting elements related to plant growth and development, phytohormone response, and both abiotic and biotic stress. Expression profiles originating from the transcriptome database showed expression patterns of these SsWRKY genes in four different tissues and revealed that most genes are expressed in plant roots. Fifteen SsWRKY genes with low-temperature response motifs were surveyed for their gene expression under cold stress, showing that most genes displayed continuous up-regulation during cold treatment. Our study provides a foundation for further study on the function and regulatory mechanism of the SsWRKY gene family.
PMID: 36679001
Plants (Basel) , IF:3.935 , 2023 Jan , V12 (1) doi: 10.3390/plants12010215
Identification of Rice Accessions Having Cold Tolerance at the Seedling Stage and Development of Novel Genotypic Assays for Predicting Cold Tolerance.
Institute of Crop Science and Nuclear Technology Utilization, Zhejiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Hangzhou 310021, China.; National Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, Thailand Science Park, Khlong Luang, Pathum Thani 12120, Thailand.; Department of Biotechnology, Faculty of Science and Technology, Thammasat University, Rangsit Centre, Khlong Luang, Pathum Thani 12120, Thailand.; Nadi District Agricultural Extension Office, Chamanan Road, Nadi Subdistrict, Nadi District, Prachinburi 25220, Thailand.
Rice is susceptible to cold stress at the seedling stage, which can delay growth and decrease yield. We evaluated 187 rice accessions for cold tolerance at the seedling stage and developed genotypic assays for three markers. All japonica (20/20) and 20/140 indica accessions were highly cold tolerant. Two SNP markers specific for COLD1 and LOC_Os10g34840 were practical to use by normal agarose gel. The SNP marker specific for COLD1 was highly specific for predicting cold tolerance. However, the sensitivity of this marker was low as several cold-tolerant indica accessions lacked the cold-tolerant allele. The LOC_Os10g34840 marker was slightly more sensitive than the COLD1 marker for predicting highly cold-tolerant accessions. An insertion/deletion variant in the NAC6 gene was identified as a novel cold tolerance marker. The NAC6 marker predicted more highly cold-tolerant accessions compared with the other two markers. The SNP marker specific for LOC_Os10g34840 and the NAC6 marker were present in several tested subgroups, suggesting their wide effects and distribution. The three markers combined predicted the most highly cold-tolerant accessions, indicating that the marker combination is superior for applications such as marker-assisted breeding. The cold-tolerant accessions and the genotypic marker assays will be useful for future rice breeding.
PMID: 36616346
Plants (Basel) , IF:3.935 , 2022 Dec , V12 (1) doi: 10.3390/plants12010060
Jasmonate Positively Regulates Cold Tolerance by Promoting ABA Biosynthesis in Tomato.
School of Life Sciences, Liaocheng University, Liaocheng 252000, China.
As a cold-sensitive species, tomato is frequently challenged by cold stress during vegetative and reproductive growth. Understanding how tomato responds to cold stress is of critical importance for sustainable tomato production. In this work, we demonstrate that jasmonate (JA) plays a crucial role in tomato response to cold stress by promoting abscisic acid (ABA) biosynthesis. It was observed that both JA and ABA levels were substantially increased under cold conditions, whereas the suppression of JA biosynthesis abated ABA accumulation. The ABA biosynthesis gene 9-CIS-EPOXYCAROTENOID DIOXYGENASE2 (NCED2) was subsequently found to be associated with JA-mediated ABA biosynthesis in tomato plants in response to cold stress. NCED2 was rapidly induced by exogenous MeJA and cold treatment. Silencing NCED2 led to a decrease in ABA accumulation that was concurrent with increased cold sensitivity. Moreover, blocking ABA biosynthesis using a chemical inhibitor impaired JA-induced cold tolerance in tomato. Furthermore, MYC2, a core component of the JA signaling pathway, promoted the transcription of NCED2, ABA accumulation and cold tolerance in tomato. Collectively, our results support that JA signaling promotes ABA biosynthesis to confer cold tolerance in tomato.
PMID: 36616188
Plants (Basel) , IF:3.935 , 2022 Dec , V11 (24) doi: 10.3390/plants11243507
Physio-Biochemical Responses of Sweet Cherry Leaf to Natural Cold Conditions.
Department of Agronomy, Biotechnical Faculty, University of Ljubljana, Jamnikarjeva 101, SI-1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Trees of the sweet cherry cultivar 'Grace Star' (Prunus avium L.) were exposed to low temperatures without frost for two consecutive nights under natural conditions 36 d after flowering, to study the effects on the physiological properties and metabolic status of leaves. The response was studied by measuring chlorophyll fluorescence and gas exchange parameters and by analyzing chloroplast pigments (i) immediately after exposure, (ii) 24 h and (iii) 48 h later. The first exposure at 2.4 (+/-0.2) degrees C and a minimum of 0.8 degrees C elicited more changes than the second exposure at 4.9 (+/-0.3) degrees C and a minimum of 2.4 degrees C. After the first exposure, the maximum quantum yield of PS II (Fv/Fm), effective quantum efficiency of PS II, net photosynthesis (P(N)), stomatal conductance (g(s)), transpiration, and intercellular CO(2) concentration were significantly lower, and after the second exposure, the content of chlorophyll b, total chlorophyll, beta-carotene, and lutein were lower. The content of antheraxanthin and zeaxanthin was higher immediately after both exposures, and that of antheraxanthin was also higher 24 h later. Recovery took longer in trees that were exposed twice. Fv/Fm recovered within 48 h, but the de-epoxidation state of the xanthophyll cycle pool, P(N), and g(s) did not reach the level of controls, indicating that the stress effect lasted several days which is probably sufficient to cause fruit drop and reduce yield.
PMID: 36559619
Plants (Basel) , IF:3.935 , 2022 Dec , V11 (24) doi: 10.3390/plants11243475
Genome-Wide Identification and Expression Profiling of Aconitase Gene Family Members Reveals Their Roles in Plant Development and Adaptation to Diverse Stress in Triticum aestivum L.
Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, Faculty of Agriculture, Sri Sri University, Cuttack 754006, India.; Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Bikaner II, Swami Keshwanand Rajasthan Agricultural University, Bikaner 334603, India.; ICAR-Central Institute for Arid Horticulture, Bikaner 334006, India.; KIIT-Technology Business Incubator (KIIT-TBI), Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology 13 (KIIT), Deemed to be University, Bhubaneswar 751024, India.; Department of Life Science, Dongguk University, Dong-gu 10326, Republic of Korea.
Global warming is a serious threat to food security and severely affects plant growth, developmental processes, and, eventually, crop productivity. Respiratory metabolism plays a critical role in the adaptation of diverse stress in plants. Aconitase (ACO) is the main enzyme, which catalyzes the revocable isomerization of citrate to isocitrate in the Krebs cycle. The function of ACO gene family members has been extensively studied in model plants, for instance Arabidopsis. However, their role in plant developmental processes and various stress conditions largely remained unknown in other plant species. Thus, we identified 15 ACO genes in wheat to elucidate their function in plant developmental processes and different stress environments. The phylogenetic tree revealed that TaACO genes were classified into six groups. Further, gene structure analysis of TaACOs has shown a distinctive evolutionary path. Synteny analysis showed the 84 orthologous gene pairs in Brachypodium distachyon, Aegilops tauschii, Triticum dicoccoides, Oryza sativa, and Arabidopsis thaliana. Furthermore, Ka/Ks ratio revealed that most TaACO genes experienced strong purifying selection during evolution. Numerous cis-acting regulatory elements were detected in the TaACO promoters, which play a crucial role in plant development processes, phytohormone signaling, and are related to defense and stress. To understand the function of TaACO genes, the expression profiling of TaACO genes were investigated in different tissues, developmental stages, and stress conditions. The transcript per million values of TaACOs genes were retrieved from the Wheat Expression Browser Database. We noticed the differential expression of the TaACO genes in different tissues and various stress conditions. Moreover, gene ontology analysis has shown enrichment in the tricarboxylic acid metabolic process (GO:0072350), citrate metabolic process (GO:0006101), isocitrate metabolic process GO:0006102, carbohydrate metabolic (GO:0005975), and glyoxylate metabolic process (GO:0046487). Therefore, this study provided valuable insight into the ACO gene family in wheat and contributed to the further functional characterization of TaACO during different plant development processes and various stress conditions.
PMID: 36559588
Plants (Basel) , IF:3.935 , 2022 Dec , V11 (23) doi: 10.3390/plants11233400
Cell Membrane Features as Potential Breeding Targets to Improve Cold Germination Ability of Seeds.
Department of Plant and Soil Science, Davis College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX 79409-2122, USA.
Cold stress breeding that focuses on the improvement of chilling tolerance at the germination stage is constrained by the complexities of the trait which involves integrated cellular, biochemical, hormonal and molecular responses. Biological membrane serves as the first line of plant defense under stress. Membranes receive cold stress signals and transduce them into intracellular responses. Low temperature stress, in particular, primarily and effectively affects the structure, composition and properties of cell membranes, which ultimately disturbs cellular homeostasis. Under cold stress, maintenance of membrane integrity through the alteration of membrane lipid composition is of prime importance to cope with the stress. This review describes the critical role of cell membranes in cold stress responses as well as the physiological and biochemical manifestations of cold stress in plants. The potential of cell membrane properties as breeding targets in developing strategies to improve cold germination ability is discussed using cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) as a model.
PMID: 36501439
Plants (Basel) , IF:3.935 , 2022 Dec , V11 (23) doi: 10.3390/plants11233371
Identification of microRNA158 from Anthurium andraeanum and Its Function in Cold Stress Tolerance.
Key Laboratory of Landscaping, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Key Laboratory of Biology of Ornamental Plants in East China, National Forestry and Grassland Administration, Department of Horticulture, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China.
Anthurium andraeanum is a tropical flower with high ornamental and economic value. Cold stress is one of the major abiotic stresses affecting the quality and value of A. andraeanum; thus, improving the cold tolerance of this species is an important breeding objective. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) have a critical role in plant abiotic stress responses, but their specific molecular regulatory mechanisms are largely unknown, including those related to the cold stress response in A. andraeanum. Here, we identified and cloned the precursor of miR158 from A. andraeanum (Aa-miR158). Both Aa-miR158 and its target gene (c48247) had higher expression levels in strong leaves than in other tissues or organs. Further study revealed that the transcript level of Aa-miR158 was increased by cold stress. Heterologous overexpression of Aa-miR158 improved cold stress tolerance in Arabidopsis, which was associated with decreases in the malondialdehyde (MDA) concentration and relative electrical conductivity (REC) as well as increases in peroxidase (POD) and catalase (CAT) activity. Moreover, overexpressing Aa-miR158 significantly increased the expression of endogenous genes related to cold stress tolerance and reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels in transgenic Arabidopsis under cold stress. Overall, our results demonstrate that Aa-miR158 is significantly involved in the cold stress response and provide a new strategy for cold tolerance breeding of A. andraeanum.
PMID: 36501408
Plants (Basel) , IF:3.935 , 2022 Dec , V12 (1) doi: 10.3390/plants12010040
The Effect of White Light Spectrum Modifications by Excess of Blue Light on the Frost Tolerance, Lipid- and Hormone Composition of Barley in the Early Pre-Hardening Phase.
Centre for Agricultural Research, Agricultural Institute, Eotvos Lorand Research Network, H-2462 Martonvasar, Hungary.; Biological Research Centre, Institute of Plant Biology, H-6701 Szeged, Hungary.; Institute of Experimental Botany of the Czech Academy of Sciences, 165 02 Prague, Czech Republic.; Department of Experimental Plant Biology, Faculty of Science, Charles University, 128 00 Prague, Czech Republic.; Department of Agronomy, GEORGIKON Campus, Hungarian University of Agricultural and Life Sciences, 8360 Keszthely, Hungary.
It is well established that cold acclimation processes are highly influenced, apart from cold ambient temperatures, by light-dependent environmental factors. In this study we investigated whether an extra blue (B) light supplementation would be able to further improve the well-documented freezing tolerance enhancing effect of far-red (FR) enriched white (W) light. The impact of B and FR light supplementation to white light (WFRB) on hormone levels and lipid contents were determined in winter barley at moderate (15 degrees C) and low (5 degrees C) temperatures. Low R:FR ratio effectively induced frost tolerance in barley plantlets, but additional B light further enhanced frost hardiness at both temperatures. Supplementation of WFR (white light enriched with FR light) with B had a strong positive effect on abscisic acid accumulation while the suppression of salicylic acid and jasmonic acid levels were observed at low temperature which resembles the shade avoidance syndrome. We also observed clear lipidomic differences between the individual light and temperature treatments. WFRB light changed the total lipid content negatively, but monogalactosyldiacylglycerol (MGDG) content was increased, nonetheless. Our results prove that WFRB light can greatly influence phytohormone dynamics and lipid contents, which eventually leads to more efficient pre-hardening to avoid frost damage.
PMID: 36616169
Life (Basel) , IF:3.817 , 2022 Dec , V13 (1) doi: 10.3390/life13010122
Analysis of the C2H2 Gene Family in Maize (Zea mays L.) under Cold Stress: Identification and Expression.
Heilongjiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Harbin 150086, China.
The C2H2 zinc finger protein is one of the most common zinc finger proteins, widely exists in eukaryotes, and plays an important role in plant growth and development, as well as in salt, low-temperature, and drought stress and other abiotic stress responses. In this study, C2H2 members were identified and analyzed from the low-temperature tolerant transcriptome sequencing data of maize seedlings. The chromosome position, physical and chemical properties, evolution analysis, gene structure, conservative motifs, promoter cis elements and collinearity relationships of gene the family members were analyzed using bioinformatics, and the expression of the ZmC2H2 gene family under cold stress was analyzed by fluorescent quantitative PCR. The results showed that 150 members of the C2H2 zinc finger protein family were identified, and their protein lengths ranged from 102 to 1223 bp. The maximum molecular weight of the ZmC2H2s was 135,196.34, and the minimum was 10,823.86. The isoelectric point of the ZmC2H2s was between 33.21 and 94.1, and the aliphatic index was 42.07-87.62. The promoter cis element analysis showed that the ZmC2H2 family contains many light-response elements, plant hormone-response elements, and stress-response elements. The analysis of the transcriptome data showed that most of the ZmC2H2 genes responded to cold stress, and most of the ZmC2H2 genes were highly expressed in cold-tolerant materials and lowly expressed in cold-sensitive materials. The real-time quantitative PCR (qRT-PCR) analysis showed that ZmC2H2-69, ZmC2H2-130, and ZmC2H2-76 were significantly upregulated, and that ZmC2H2-149, ZmC2H2-33, and ZmC2H2-38 were significantly downregulated. It is hypothesized that these genes, which function in different metabolic pathways, may play a key role in the maize cold response. These genes could be further studied as candidate genes. This study provides a theoretical reference for further study on the function analysis of the maize C2H2 gene family.
PMID: 36676071
Gene , IF:3.688 , 2023 Mar , V856 : P147137 doi: 10.1016/j.gene.2022.147137
Genome-wide analysis of hyperosmolality-gated calcium-permeable channel (OSCA) family members and their involvement in various osmotic stresses in Brassica napus.
School of Biological Science and Engineering, Shaanxi University of Technology, Hanzhong 723001, Shaanxi, China; Shaanxi Province Key Laboratory of Bio-resources, Hanzhong 723001, Shaanxi, China; Qinba Mountain Area Collaborative Innovation Center of Bioresources Comprehensive Development, Hanzhong 723001, Shaanxi, China; Qinba State Key Laboratory of Biological Resources and Ecological Environment (Incubation), Hanzhong 723001, Shaanxi, China.; The Key Laboratory of Biology and Genetic Improvement of Oil Crops, Oil Crops Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Wuhan 430000, China.; School of Biological Science and Engineering, Shaanxi University of Technology, Hanzhong 723001, Shaanxi, China.; School of Biological Science and Engineering, Shaanxi University of Technology, Hanzhong 723001, Shaanxi, China. Electronic address: yuzhang20160315@outlook.com.; Shaanxi Province Key Laboratory of Bio-resources, Hanzhong 723001, Shaanxi, China. Electronic address: 412532011@qq.com.; The Key Laboratory of Biology and Genetic Improvement of Oil Crops, Oil Crops Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Wuhan 430000, China. Electronic address: xiemeili@caas.cn.
Plant hyperosmolality-gated calcium-permeable channel (OSCA) is a calcium permeable cation channel that responds to hyperosmotic stress and plays a pivotal role in plant growth, development and stress response. Through a genome-wide survey, 41 OSCA genes were identified from the genome of Brassica napus. The OSCA family genes were unevenly distributed over 14 chromosomes of B. napus and phylogenetic analysis separated the OSCA family into four clades. Motif analyses indicated that OSCA proteins in the same clade were highly conserved and the protein conserved motifs shared similar composition patterns. The OSCA promoter regions contained many hormone-related elements and stress response elements. Gene duplication analysis elucidated that WGD/segmental duplication was the main driving force for the expansion of OSCA genes during evolution and these genes mainly underwent purifying selection. RNA-seq and qRT-PCR analysis of different tissues showed that OSCA genes are expressed and function mainly in the root. Among these genes, BnOSCA3.1a and BnOSCA3.1c had relatively high expression levels under osmotic stresses and cold stress and were highly expressed in different tissues. Protein interaction network analysis showed that a total of 5802 proteins might interact with OSCAs in B. napus, while KEGG/GO enrichment analysis indicated that OSCAs and their interacting proteins were mainly involved in plant response to abiotic stress. This systematic analysis of the OSCAs in B. napus identified gene structures, evolutionary features, expression patterns and related biological processes. These findings will facilitate further functional and evolutionary analysis of OSCAs in B. napus for breeding of osmotic-stress-resistant plants.
PMID: 36574938
J Plant Physiol , IF:3.549 , 2022 Dec , V279 : P153834 doi: 10.1016/j.jplph.2022.153834
A calcium-dependent protein kinase gene SpCPK33 from Solanum pennellii associated with increased cold tolerance in tomato.
College of Horticulture, Xinjiang Agricultural University, Urumqi, Xinjiang, China; Institute of Horticultural Crops, Xinjiang Academy of Agricultural Science (Key Laboratory of Horticulture Crop Genomics Research and Genetic Improvement in Xinjiang), Urumqi, China.; Institute of Horticultural Crops, Xinjiang Academy of Agricultural Science (Key Laboratory of Horticulture Crop Genomics Research and Genetic Improvement in Xinjiang), Urumqi, China.; College of Horticulture, Xinjiang Agricultural University, Urumqi, Xinjiang, China; Institute of Horticultural Crops, Xinjiang Academy of Agricultural Science (Key Laboratory of Horticulture Crop Genomics Research and Genetic Improvement in Xinjiang), Urumqi, China. Electronic address: yuqinghui@xaas.ac.cn.; Institute of Horticultural Crops, Xinjiang Academy of Agricultural Science (Key Laboratory of Horticulture Crop Genomics Research and Genetic Improvement in Xinjiang), Urumqi, China. Electronic address: wangjuan@xaas.ac.cn.
Calcium-dependent protein kinases (CDPKs, CPKs) represent a vital class of calcium sensors, which play a crucial role in plant growth, development and adaption to complex environmental stresses. Wild species tend to exhibit greater tolerance than cultivated species under environmental stress. Here, we isolated a calcium-dependent protein kinase gene SpCPK33 located primarily on the plasma membrane of abiotic-resistant species (Solanum pennellii LA0716). It was highly expressed in stems and leaves and was also induced by cold stress. Compared with WT plants, the overexpression of SpCPK33 in cultivated tomato (cv M82) enhanced its tolerance to cold stress. Transgenic lines demonstrated strong vitality under low temperature treatment. Moreover, the levels of malondialdehyde (MDA) and reactive oxygen species (ROS) were decreased in SpCPK33-overexpressing plants. The activities of antioxidant enzymes and the levels of osmotic regulatory substances were higher. The transcript levels of cold stress-related genes were up-regulated. In summary, the results indicate that SpCPK33-overexpressing transgenic plants experience less severe chilling injury under cold stress, and improved tomato cold tolerance by scavenging ROS accumulation and modulating the expression of stress-related genes.
PMID: 36272175
Protoplasma , IF:3.356 , 2023 Jan , V260 (1) : P171-187 doi: 10.1007/s00709-022-01765-y
Comparative genomic analysis of the CPK gene family in Moso bamboo (Phyllostachys edulis) and the functions of PheCPK1 in drought stress.
Laboratory of Modern Biotechnology, School of Forestry and Landscape Architecture, Anhui Agricultural University, Hefei, 230036, China.; Laboratory of Modern Biotechnology, School of Forestry and Landscape Architecture, Anhui Agricultural University, Hefei, 230036, China. xiangyanahau@sina.com.
Calcium-dependent protein kinases (CPKs) play an important role in plant regulation of growth and development, and in the responses to biotic and abiotic stresses. In the present study, we analyzed Moso bamboo (Phyllostachys edulis) CPK genes and their closely related five gene families (Brachypodium distachyon, Hordeum vulgare L., Oryza sativa, Setaria italica, and Zea mays) comprehensively, including phylogenetic relationships, gene structures, and synteny analysis. Thirty Moso bamboo CPKs were divided into four subgroups; in each subgroup, the constituent parts of gene structure were relatively conserved. Furthermore, analysis of expression profiles showed that most PheCPK genes are significantly upregulated under drought and cold stress, especially PheCPK1. Overexpression of PheCPK1 in Arabidopsis reduced plant tolerance to drought stress, as determined through physiological analyses of the relative water content, relative electrical leakage, and malondialdehyde content. It also activated the expressions of stress-related genes. In addition, overexpression of PheCPK1 in Arabidopsis exhibited significantly decreased reactive oxygen species (ROS)-scavenging ability. Taken together, these results suggest that PheCPK1 may act as a negative regulator involved in the drought stress responses.
PMID: 35503386
Protoplasma , IF:3.356 , 2023 Jan , V260 (1) : P145-158 doi: 10.1007/s00709-022-01767-w
Superoxide dismutase (SOD) family in durum wheat: promising candidates for improving crop resilience.
Biotechnology and Plant Improvement Laboratory, Centre of Biotechnology of Sfax (CBS), University of Sfax, B.P "1177" 3018, Sfax, Tunisia. tounsisana@ymail.com.; Laboratory of Microbial Biotechnology Enzymatic and Biomolecules, Centre of Biotechnology of Sfax (CBS), University of Sfax, P.O Box 1177, 3018, Sfax, Tunisia.; Biology Department, Faculty of Sciences of Sfax, University of Sfax, Sfax, Tunisia.; Laboratory of Legumes and Sustainable Agrosystem (L2AD), Center of Biotechnology of Borj-Cedria, BP901, 2050, Hammam‑Lif, Tunisia.; Biotechnology and Plant Improvement Laboratory, Centre of Biotechnology of Sfax (CBS), University of Sfax, B.P "1177" 3018, Sfax, Tunisia. faical.brini@cbs.rnrt.tn.; Biotechnology and Plant Improvement Laboratory, Centre of Biotechnology of Sfax (CBS), University of Sfax, B.P "1177" 3018, Sfax, Tunisia.
The SOD family has been extensively analyzed at genome wide level in several crops. However, little is known about this family in durum wheat. In this study, a total of 14 TdSOD genes were identified in whole durum wheat genome including 8 TdCu-ZnSODs, 2 TdMnSODs, and 4 TdFeSODs. In silico analysis evinced that TdSOD family members displayed a closer evolutionary relationship, similar gene structure and protein features with their homologs from other plant species. Furthermore, the analysis of their promoter regions revealed the presence of a great number of cis-regulatory elements related to plant development, abiotic and biotic stresses, phytohormones, and several potential binding sites for transcription factors. Interestingly, 3D structure analysis revealed that TdCu-ZnSOD2A-2 and TdCu-ZnSOD2B-2, belonging to the Cu-Zn group, were modeled as copper chaperone for SOD like their homologs from rice and Arabidopsis. The expression profile of eight TdSOD candidate genes was investigated under salt, drought, cold, and ABA treatments. Notably, TdCu-ZnSOD2A-1, TdFeSOD4A-1, and TdFeSOD7A-1 were significantly up-regulated under all stress treatments. On the other hand, TdCu-ZnSOD7B and TdMnSOD2B were strongly expressed in roots and leaves under cold stress and TdCu-ZnSOD2B-2 was particularly up-regulated in leaves under ABA treatment. Ultimately, these findings provide valuable information for the identification of attractive candidate genes to improve wheat resilience.
PMID: 35484428
J Appl Genet , IF:3.24 , 2022 Dec , V63 (4) : P597-608 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
Bioprocess Biosyst Eng , IF:3.21 , 2022 Dec , V45 (12) : P1967-1977 doi: 10.1007/s00449-022-02800-1
Cold stress combined with salt or abscisic acid supplementation enhances lipogenesis and carotenogenesis in Phaeodactylum tricornutum (Bacillariophyceae).
School of Science, Department of Environmental Science, Centre for Environmental Research, Sustainability and Innovation, Atlantic Technological University, Ash Ln, Ballytivnan, Sligo, F91 YW50, Ireland. David.Fierli@mail.itsligo.ie.; School of Science, Department of Environmental Science, Centre for Environmental Research, Sustainability and Innovation, Atlantic Technological University, Ash Ln, Ballytivnan, Sligo, F91 YW50, Ireland.; School of Science, Department of Life Sciences, Cellular Health and Toxicology Research Group (CHAT), Atlantic Technological University, Ash Ln, Ballytivnan, Sligo, F91 YW50, Ireland.
Compounds from microalgae such as omega3-fatty acids or carotenoid are commercially exploited within the pharmacology, nutraceutical, or cosmetic sectors. The co-stimulation of several compounds of interest may improve the cost-effectiveness of microalgal biorefinery pipelines. This study focussed on Phaeodactylum tricornutum to investigate the effects on lipogenesis and carotenogenesis of combined stressors, here cold temperature and addition of NaCl salt or the phytohormone abscisic acid, using a two-stage cultivation strategy. Cold stress with NaCl or phytohormone addition increased the neutral lipid content of the biomass (20 to 35%). These treatments also enhanced the proportions of EPA (22% greater than control) in the fatty acid profile. Also, these treatments had a stimulatory effect on carotenogenesis, especially the combination of cold stress with NaCl addition, which returned the highest production of fucoxanthin (33% increase). The gene expression of diacylglycerol acyltransferase (DGAT) and the omega-3 desaturase precursor (PTD15) were enhanced 4- and 16-fold relative to the control, respectively. In addition, zeaxanthin epoxidase 3 (ZEP3), was downregulated at low temperature when combined with abscisic acid. These results highlight the benefits of applying a combination of low temperature and salinity stress, to simultaneously enhance the yields of the valuable metabolites EPA and fucoxanthin in Phaeodactylum tricornutum.
PMID: 36264371
Funct Plant Biol , IF:3.101 , 2023 Jan doi: 10.1071/FP22211
Ultrasonic treatment to enhance seed germination and vigour of wheat (Triticum durum) in association with gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) shunt pathway.
Treatments of wheat (Triticum durum L.) seeds with sonication or hydropriming may enhance seed germination and vigour in association with gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA). Therefore, the objective of this study is to examine the effect of sonication and hydropriming treatments on seed germination of wheat through the characterisation of seed germination performance, GABA shunt metabolite level (GABA, glutamate, and alanine), and the level of glutamate decarboxylase (GAD) mRNA transcription. Wheat seeds were exposed to three treatments for 0, 5, 10, 15, and 20min: (1) sonication with water; (2) sonication without water; and (3) hydropriming without sonication. Treated seeds were evaluated for germination percentage, mean time to germinate, germination rate index in the warm germination test, and seedling emergence and shoot length in the cold test. GABA shunt metabolites level (GABA, glutamate, and alanine), and the level of GAD mRNA transcription were measured for the seeds after treatments and for seedlings during germination and cold tests. Seeds treated with sonication or hydropriming treatments had a higher germination rate index (faster germination) in the standard germination test, and higher seedling emergence and shoot length in the cold test. Seeds treated with sonication or hydropriming treatments showed an enhancement in GABA shunt and their metabolites (alanine and glutamate), and GAD mRNA transcription level compared to untreated-control seeds. In conclusion, the sonication or hydropriming treatments significantly improved the germination performance of wheat and enhanced GABA metabolism to maintain the C:N metabolic balance, especially under cold stress.
PMID: 36634915
GM Crops Food , IF:3.074 , 2022 Dec , V13 (1) : P196-217 doi: 10.1080/21645698.2022.2106111
Melatonin-mediated temperature stress tolerance in plants.
College of Agriculture, Oil Crops Research Institute, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University (FAFU), Fuzhou, Fujian, China.; State Key Laboratory of Rice Biology, China National Rice Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS), Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China.; Agronomy Department of Superior School Engineering, University of Almeria, Almeria, Spain.; Grassland and Forage Division, National Institute of Animal Science, Rural Development Administration, Cheonan, Korea.; Department of Microbiology, University of Lagos, Nigeria.; Department of Agricultural Genetic Engineering, Faculty of Agricultural Sciences and Technologies, Nigde Omer Halisdemir University, Turkey.; Key Laboratory of Biology and Genetic Improvement of Horticultural Crops (North China), Institute of Forestry and Pomology, Beijing Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences, Beijing, Peking, China.
Global climate changes cause extreme temperatures and a significant reduction in crop production, leading to food insecurity worldwide. Temperature extremes (including both heat and cold stresses) is one of the most limiting factors in plant growth and development and severely affect plant physiology, biochemical, and molecular processes. Biostimulants like melatonin (MET) have a multifunctional role that acts as a "defense molecule" to safeguard plants against the noxious effects of temperature stress. MET treatment improves plant growth and temperature tolerance by improving several defense mechanisms. Current research also suggests that MET interacts with other molecules, like phytohormones and gaseous molecules, which greatly supports plant adaptation to temperature stress. Genetic engineering via overexpression or CRISPR/Cas system of MET biosynthetic genes uplifts the MET levels in transgenic plants and enhances temperature stress tolerance. This review highlights the critical role of MET in plant production and tolerance against temperature stress. We have documented how MET interacts with other molecules to alleviate temperature stress. MET-mediated molecular breeding would be great potential in helping the adverse effects of temperature stress by creating transgenic plants.
PMID: 35983948
PeerJ , IF:2.984 , 2023 , V11 : Pe14690 doi: 10.7717/peerj.14690
Genome-wide identification and expression reveal the involvement of the FCS-like zinc finger (FLZ) gene family in Gossypium hirsutum at low temperature.
Cash Crops Research Institute, Xinjiang Academy of Agricultural Science, Urumqi, Xinjiang, China.; Adsen Biotechnology Co., Ltd., Urumqi, Xinjiang, China.
FCS-like zinc finger (FLZ) is a plant-specific gene family that plays an important regulatory role in plant growth and development and its response to stress. However, studies on the characteristics and functions of cotton FLZ family genes are still lacking. This study systematically identified members of the cotton FLZ gene family based on cotton genome data. The cotton FLZ family genes were systematically analyzed by bioinformatics, and their expression patterns in different tissues and under low-temperature stress were analyzed by transcriptome and qRT-PCR. The G. hirsutum genome contains 56 FLZ genes distributed on 20 chromosomes, and most of them are located in the nucleus. According to the number and evolution analysis of FLZ family genes, FLZ family genes can be divided into five subgroups in cotton. The G. hirsutum FLZ gene has a wide range of tissue expression types, among which the expression is generally higher in roots, stems, leaves, receptacles and calyx. Through promoter analysis, it was found that it contained the most cis-acting elements related to methyl jasmonate (MeJA) and abscisic acid (ABA). Combined with the promoter and qRT-PCR results, it was speculated that GhFLZ11, GhFLZ25, GhFLZ44 and GhFLZ55 were involved in the response of cotton to low-temperature stress. Taken together, our findings suggest an important role for the FLZ gene family in the cotton response to cold stress. This study provides an important theoretical basis for further research on the function of the FLZ gene family and the molecular mechanism of the cotton response to low temperature.
PMID: 36710860
PeerJ , IF:2.984 , 2023 , V11 : Pe14704 doi: 10.7717/peerj.14704
Genome-wide identification and expression profile analysis of SWEET genes in Chinese jujube.
Hebei Agricultural University, College of Horticulture, Baoding, Hebei, China.; Hebei Agricultural University, Research Center of Chinese Jujube, Baoding, Hebei, China.; Hebei Agricultural University, National Engineering Research Center for Agriculture in Northern Mountaninous Areas, Baoding, Hebei, China.; Hebei University of Engineering, School of Landscape and Ecological Engineering, Handan, Hebei, China.
The novel sugar transporter known as SWEET (sugars will eventually be exported transporter) is involved in the transport and distribution of photosynthesis products in plants. The SWEET protein is also involved in pollen development, nectar secretion, stress responses, and other important physiological processes. Although SWEET genes have been characterized and identified in model plants, such as Arabidopsis and rice, little is known about them in jujube. In this study, the molecular characteristics of the SWEET gene family in the Chinese jujube (Ziziphus jujuba Mill.) and their expression patterns in different organs, at different fruit developmental stages, and under abiotic stress were analyzed. A total of 19 ZjSWEET genes were identified in jujube through a genome-wide study; these were classified into four sub-groups based on their phylogenic relationships. The gene structure analysis of ZjSWEET genes showed that all the members had introns. The expression patterns of different ZjSWEET genes varied significantly in different organs (root, shoot, leave, flower, fruit), which indicated that ZjSWEETs play different roles in multiple organs. According to the expression profiles by quantitative real-time PCR analysis during fruit development, the expression levels of the two genes (ZjSWEET11, ZjSWEET18) gradually increased with the development of the fruit and reached a high level at the full-red fruit stage. A prediction of the cis-acting regulatory elements indicated that the promoter sequences of ZjSWEETs contained nine types of phytohormone-responsive cis-regulatory elements and six environmental factors. In addition, the expression profiles by quantitative real-time PCR analysis showed that some of the ZjSWEETs responded to environmental changes; ZjSWEET2 was highly induced in response to cold stress, and ZjSWEET8 was significantly up-regulated in response to alkali and salt stresses. This study showed that the functions of the ZjSWEET family members of jujube are different, and some may play an important role in sugar accumulation and abiotic stress in jujube.
PMID: 36684667
Lett Appl Microbiol , IF:2.858 , 2023 Jan , V76 (1) doi: 10.1093/lambio/ovac035
Effect of seed biopriming with selected endophytes on the growth and chilling tolerance of rice plants.
Department of Soil and Environmental Sciences, National Chung Hsing University, Taichung City 40227, Taiwan.; Innovation and Development Center of Sustainable Agriculture (IDCSA), National Chung Hsing University, Taichung City 40227, Taiwan.; Institute of Plant and Microbial Biology, Academia Sinica, Nankang, Taipei 115201, Taiwan.; Biotechnology Center, National Chung Hsing University, Taichung City 40227, Taiwan.; Institute of Molecular Biology, Academia Sinica, Nankang, Taipei 115201, Taiwan.
The aim of this study was to develop an efficient bioinoculant for amelioration of adverse effects from chilling stress (10 degrees C), which are frequently occurred during rice seedling stage. Seed germination bioassay under chilling condition with rice (Oryza sativa L.) cv. Tainan 11 was performed to screen for plant growth-promoting (PGP) bacteria among 41 chilling-tolerant rice endophytes. And several agronomic traits were used to evaluate the effects of bacterial inoculation on rice seedling, which were experienced for 7-d chilling stress in walk-in growth chamber. The field trials were further used to verify the performance of potential PGP endophytes on rice growth. A total of three endophytes with multiple PGP traits were obtained. It was demonstrated that Pseudomonas sp. CC-LS37 inoculation led to 18% increase of maximal efficiency of Photosystem II (PSII) after 7-d chilling stress and 7% increase of chlorophyll a content, and 64% decline of malondialdehyde content in shoot after 10-d recovery at normal temperature in walk-in growth chamber. In field trial, biopriming of seeds with strain CC-LS37 caused rice plants to increase shoot chlorophyll soil plant analysis development values (by 2.9% and 2.5%, respectively) and tiller number (both by 61%) under natural climate and chilling stress during the end of tillering stage, afterward 30% more grain yield was achieved. In conclusion, strain CC-LS37 exerted its function in increase of tiller number of chilling stress-treated rice seedlings via improvement of photosynthetic characteristics, which in turn increases the rice grain yield. This study also proposed multiple indices used in the screening of potential endophytes for conferring chilling tolerance of rice plants.
PMID: 36688764
J Plant Res , IF:2.629 , 2023 Jan doi: 10.1007/s10265-023-01437-9
Morphological and antioxidant responses of Nopalea cochenillifera cv. Maya (edible Opuntia sp. "Kasugai Saboten") to chilling acclimatization.
Faculty of Agriculture, Meijo University, 1-501 Shiogamaguchi, Tempaku, Nagoya, 468-8502, Japan. ayumu@meijo-u.ac.jp.; Faculty of Agriculture, Meijo University, 1-501 Shiogamaguchi, Tempaku, Nagoya, 468-8502, Japan.
To clarify the wintering ability of the cactus Nopalea cochenillifera cv. Maya (edible Opuntia sp., common name "Kasugai Saboten"), we investigated the effects of temperature and antioxidant capacity on chilling acclimatization. We analyzed the anatomy of cladode chlorenchyma tissue of plants exposed to light under chilling. We found that chilling acclimatization can be achieved by exposure to approximately 15 degrees C for 2 weeks and suggest that it is affected by whether or not antioxidant capacity can recover. The overwintering cacti had the thinnest cuticle but firm cuticular wax, which is important in the acquisition of low temperature tolerance under strong light. In cacti with severe chilling injury, round swollen nuclei with clumping chloroplasts were localized in the upper part (axial side) of the cell, as though pushed up by large vacuoles in the lower part. In overwintering cacti, chloroplasts were arranged on the lateral side of the cell as in control plants, but they formed pockets: invaginations with a thin layer of chloroplast stroma that surrounded mitochondria and peroxisomes. Specific cellular structural changes depended on the degree of chilling stress and provide useful insights linking chloroplast behavior and structural changes to the environmental stress response.
PMID: 36690846
Cryobiology , IF:2.487 , 2022 Dec , V109 : P80-85 doi: 10.1016/j.cryobiol.2022.08.004
Pre-stress salicylic-acid treatment as an intervention strategy for freeze-protection in spinach: Foliar versus sub-irrigation application and duration of efficacy.
Department of Horticulture, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, 50011, USA.; Department of Horticulture, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, 50011, USA. Electronic address: rarora@iastate.edu.
Exogenous application of salicylic acid (SA) to plant tissues has been shown to confer tolerance against various abiotic stresses. Recently, SA application through sub-irrigation was shown to improve plant freezing tolerance (FT). For SA treatment to be employable as an effective intervention strategy for frost protection under field conditions, it is important to study its effect on FT when applied as a foliar spray to whole plants. It is also important to determine for how long the FT-improvement by SA lasts. Present study was conducted to compare SA-induced FT of spinach (Spinacia oleracea L. 'Reflect') seedlings following SA-application by foliar spray vs. sub-irrigation. Durability of FT-promotive effect of SA was evaluated using three freeze-tests over a 4-d period, i.e., at 10-d, 12-d, and 14-d after the SA application. Freezing stress was applied using a temperature-controlled freeze-thaw protocol, and FT was assessed by visual observations (leaf flaccidness vs. turgidity) as well as ion-leakage assay. Data indicated that both foliar spray and sub-irrigation methods improved FT of the seedlings against a relatively moderate (-5.5 degrees C) as well as severe stress (-6.5 degrees C). Moreover, improved FT against moderate stress was sustained over a 4-d period, whereas such benefit waned somewhat against the severe stress. SA-treated leaves' growth performance was similar to the non-treated control based on dry weight, fresh weight, leaf area, and dry weight/leaf area parameters. Our results suggest that SA application as a foliar spray can potentially be used to protect field-grown transplants against episodic frosts.
PMID: 36122766
Physiol Mol Biol Plants , IF:2.391 , 2022 Dec , V28 (11-12) : P1969-1979 doi: 10.1007/s12298-022-01257-6
Isolation and characterization of wheat ice recrystallisation inhibition gene promoter involved in low temperature and methyl jasmonate responses.
College of Life Science and Food Engineering, Inner Mongolia Minzu University, 536 Huolinhe Street West, Tongliao City, 028043 Inner Mongolia China.; College of Bioscience and Biotechnology, Shenyang Agricultural University, 120 Dongling Street, Shenyang City, 110866 Liaoning China. GRID: grid.412557.0. ISNI: 0000 0000 9886 8131; College of Agriculture, Inner Mongolia Minzu University, Tongliao, 028043 China.; Engineering Technology Research Center of Forage Crops in Inner Mongolia, Inner Mongolia Minzu University, Tongliao, 028043 China.
It is well known that plant growth, development, survival and geographical distribution are constrained by extreme climatic conditions, especially extreme low temperature. Under cold stress, cold-inducible promoters were identified as important molecular switches to transcriptionally regulate the initiation of genes associated with cold acclimation processes and enhance the adaptability of plants to cold stimulation. Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) is one of the most dominating food crops in the world, and wheat crops are generally overwintering with strong cold resistance. Our previous study already proved that heterologous expression of wheat ice recrystallization inhibition (IRI) genes enhanced freezing tolerance in tobacco. However, the upstream regulatory mechanisms of TaIRI are ambiguous. In this study, the space-time specific expression of TaIRI genes in wheat was analyzed by quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR), and results showed that the expression of TaIRI in all tissues was cold-induced and accelerate by exogenous methyl jasmonate (MeJA). Three promoters of TaIRI genes were isolated from wheat genome, and various 5'-deletion fragments of TaIRIp were integrated into beta-glucuronidase (GUS) within vector pCAMBIA1301. The promoter activity of TaIRI genes was determined through transient expression system of tobacco and stable expression of Arabidopsis thaliana. Results revealed that the GUS activity were significantly strengthened by cold and MeJA treatments. This study will provide insights into elucidating the transcription-regulatory mechanism of IRI proteins responding to low temperature.
PMID: 36573144
Plant Signal Behav , IF:2.247 , 2022 Dec , V17 (1) : P2139116 doi: 10.1080/15592324.2022.2139116
A tomato chloroplast-targeted DnaJ protein, SlDnaJ20 maintains the stability of photosystem I/II under chilling stress.
School of Biological Sciences, Jining Medical University, Ri'zhao, 276800, P.R. China.
DnaJ proteins are key molecular chaperones that act as a part of the stress response to stabilize plant proteins, thereby maintaining protein homeostasis under stressful conditions. Herein we used transgenic plants to explore the role of the tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) SlDnaJ20 chloroplast DnaJ protein in to the resistance of these proteins to cold. When chilled, transgenic plants exhibited superior cold resistance, with reduced growth inhibition and cellular damage and increased fresh mass and chlorophyll content relative to control. These transgenic plants further exhibited increased Fv/Fm, P700 oxidation, phi(Ro), and delta(Ro) relative to control plants under chilling conditions. Under these same cold conditions, these transgenic plants also exhibited higher levels of core proteins in the photosystem I (PSI) and II (PSII) complexes (PsaA and PsaB; D1 and D2) relative to control wild-type plants. Together these results suggested that the overexpression of SlDnaJ20 is sufficient to maintain PSI and PSII complex stability and to alleviate associated photoinhibition of these complexes, thereby increasing transgenic plant resistance to cold stress.
PMID: 36408837
Plant Signal Behav , IF:2.247 , 2022 Dec , V17 (1) : P2129289 doi: 10.1080/15592324.2022.2129289
Exogenous melatonin confers cold tolerance in rapeseed (Brassica napus L.) seedlings by improving antioxidants and genes expression.
Key Laboratory Biology and Genetic Improvement of Oil Crops, Oil Crops Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS), Ministry of Agriculture, Wuhan, China.; Seed Administration Bureau of Hubei Province, Wuhan, China.
Rapeseed (Brassica napus L.) is an important oilseed crop globally. However, its growth and production are significantly influenced by cold stress. To reveal the protective role of exogenous melatonin (MEL) in cold tolerance, rapeseed seedlings were pretreated with different concentrations of MEL before cold stress. The results indicated that the survival rate was increased significantly by the MEL pretreatment under cold stress. Seedlings pretreated with 0.01 g L(-1) MEL were all survived and were used to analyze the physiological characteristics and the expression level of various genes related to cold tolerance. Under cold stress, exogenous MEL significantly increased the contents of proline, soluble sugar, and soluble protein; while the malondialdehyde content was decreased by exogenous MEL under cold stress. On the other hand, the activities of antioxidant defense enzymes such as catalase, peroxidase, and superoxide dismutase were also significantly enhanced. The results also showed that MEL treatment significantly upregulated the expression of Cu-SOD, COR6.6 (cold-regulated), COR15, and CBFs (C-repeat binding factor) genes under cold stress. It was suggested exogenous MEL improved the content of osmotic regulatory substances to maintain the balance of cellular osmotic potential under cold stress and improved the scavenging capacity of reactive oxygen species by strengthening the activity of antioxidant enzymes and the cold-related genes expression.
PMID: 36205498
Plant Signal Behav , IF:2.247 , 2022 Dec , V17 (1) : P2081420 doi: 10.1080/15592324.2022.2081420
Genome-wide identification and expression analysis of DREB genes in alfalfa (Medicago sativa) in response to cold stress.
College of Resources and Environmental Sciences, Key Lab of Plant-Soil Interaction, MOE, Center for Resources, Environment and Food Security, China Agricultural University, Beijing, China.; Hunan Tobacco Science Institute, Changsha, China.
Dehydration-responsive element-binding proteins (DREBs) belong to members of the AP2/ERF transcription factor superfamily, which has been reported to involve various abiotic-stress responses and tolerance in plants. However, research on the DREB-family is still limited in alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.), a forage legume cultivated worldwide. The recent genome-sequence release of the alfalfa cultivar "XinJiangDaYe" allowed us to identify 172 DREBs by a multi-step homolog search. The phylogenetic analysis indicated that such MsDREBs could be classified into 5 groups, namely A-1 (56 members), A-2 (39), A-3 (3), A-4 (61) and 13 (A-5 (13), thus adding substantial new members to the DREB-family in alfalfa. Furthermore, a comprehensive survey in silico of conserved motif, gene structure, molecular weight, and isoelectric point (pI) as well as gene expression was conducted. The resulting data showed that, for cold-stress response, 33 differentially expressed MsDREBs were identified with a threshold of Log2-fold > 1, and most of which were transcriptionally upregulated within 48 h during a cold treatment(s). Moreover, the expression profiling of MsDREBs from two ecotypes of alfalfa subspecies i.e. M. sativa ssp. falcata (F56, from a colder region of Central Asia) and M. sativa ssp. sativa (B47, from Near East) revealed that most of the cold-stress responsive MsDREBs exhibited a significantly lower expression in F56, leading to a proposal of the existence of a distinct mechanism(s) for cold tolerance regulated by DREB-related action, which would have been evolved in alfalfa with a genotypic specificity. Additionally, by examining the transcriptome of a freezing-tolerance species (M. sativa cv. Zhaodong), eight DREBs were found to be implicated in a long-term freezing-stress adaptation with a great potential. Taken together, the current genome-wide identification in alfalfa points to the importance of some MsDREBs in the cold-stress response, providing some promising molecular targets to be functionally characterized for the improvement of cold tolerance in crops including alfalfa.
PMID: 35642507
Plant Signal Behav , IF:2.247 , 2022 Dec , V17 (1) : P2013638 doi: 10.1080/15592324.2021.2013638
Cold acclimation alleviates cold stress-induced PSII inhibition and oxidative damage in tobacco leaves.
Institute of Biological Engineering, Xinxiang Institute of Engineering, Xinxiang, Henan, China.
This study aimed to explore how cold acclimation (CA) modulates cold stress in tobacco leaves and reveal the relationship between CA and cold stress resistance, and the mechanism of CA-induced plant resistance to cold stress. This study examined the effects of CA treatment (at 8-10℃ for 2 d) on the cold tolerance of tobacco leaves under 4 degrees C cold stress treatment using seedlings without CA treatment as the control (NA). In both CA and NA leaves, cold stress treatment resulted in a decrease in maximum photochemical efficiency of PSII (F(v)/F(m)), increase in relative variable fluorescence (V(J)) at 2 ms on the standardized OJIP curve, inhibition of PSII activity, and impairment of electron transfer on the acceptor side. Besides increasing the malondialdehyde (MDA) content and electrolyte leakage rate, the cold stress exacerbated the degree of membrane peroxidation. The CA treatment also induced the accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS), including superoxide anion (O(2).(-)) and H(2)O(2,) and increased the activities of antioxidant enzymes, such as superoxide dismutase (SOD), peroxidase (POD), catalase (CAT) and ascorbic acid peroxidase (APX). The CA treatment also enhanced the accumulation of soluble sugar (SS) and soluble protein (SP), cyclic electron flow (CEF), and the proportion of regulatory energy dissipation Y(NPQ). Moreover, CA+ cold stress treatment significantly reduced CEF and Y(NPQ) in tobacco leaves than under NA+ cold stress treatment, thus significantly alleviating the degree of PSII photoinhibition. In conclusion, CA treatment significantly alleviated PSII photoinhibition and oxidative damage in tobacco leaves under cold stress treatment. Improvement in cold resistance of tobacco leaves is associated with the induction of antioxidant enzyme activity, accumulation of osmoregulation substances, and initiation of photoprotective mechanisms.
PMID: 34964430
Fly (Austin) , IF:2.16 , 2023 Dec , V17 (1) : P2157161 doi: 10.1080/19336934.2022.2157161
Larval nutritional-stress and tolerance to extreme temperatures in the peach fruit fly, Bactrocera zonata (Diptera: Tephritidae).
Department of Entomology, Institute of Plant Protection, Agricultural Research Organization, Rishon Letzion, Israel.; Laboratory of Entomology and Agricultural Zoology, Department of Agriculture Crop Production and Rural Environment, University of Thessaly, Volos, Greece.
Within the factors affecting insect tolerance to extreme environmental conditions, insect nutrition, particularly of immature stages, has received insufficient attention. In the present study, we address this gap by investigating the effects of larval nutrition on heat and cold tolerance of adult Bactrocera zonata - an invasive, polyphagous fruit fly pest. We manipulated the nutritional content in the larval diet by varying the amount of added yeast (2-10% by weight), while maintaining a constant sucrose content. Adults derived from the different larval diets were tested for their tolerance to extreme heat and cold stress. Restricting the amount of yeast reduced the efficacy of the larval diet (i.e. number of pupae produced per g of diet) as well as pupal and adult fresh weight, both being significantly lower for yeast-poor diets. Additionally, yeast restriction during the larval stage (2% yeast diet) significantly reduced the amount of protein but not lipid reserves of newly emerged males and females. Adults maintained after emergence on granulated sugar and water for 10 days were significantly more tolerant to extreme heat (i.e. knock-down time at 42 (o)C) when reared as larvae on yeast-rich diets (8% and 10% yeast) compared to counterparts developing on a diet containing 2% yeast. Nevertheless, the composition of the larval diet did not significantly affect adult survival following acute cold stress (exposure to -3 degrees C for 2 hrs.). These results are corroborated by previous findings on Drosophilid flies. Possible mechanisms leading to nutrition-based heat-tolerance in flies are discussed.
PMID: 36576164
Curr Issues Mol Biol , IF:2.081 , 2023 Jan , V45 (1) : P699-720 doi: 10.3390/cimb45010047
Transcriptomic Analysis of Yunwu Tribute Tea Leaves under Cold Stress.
Guizhou Province Institute of Biology, Guizhou Academy of Sciences, Guiyang 550009, China.; The Key Laboratory of Plant Resources Conservation and Germplasm Innovation in Mountainous Region (Ministry of Education), Guizhou University, Guiyang 550025, China.; The Application Center for Plant Conservation Technology, Guizhou Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Guiyang 550006, China.
BACKGROUND: Cold stress usually occurs in winter and is one of the most significant environmental factors restricting the growth of the tea plant as well as its geographical distribution. OBJECTIVE: It is necessary to identify the physiological and molecular mechanisms of plants under cold stress so that cold-tolerant crop varieties can be cultivated to limit production losses. At the same time, this would allow the crop planting area to be expanded, hence improving the economic benefits. METHODS: In this study, the transcriptome data of Yunwu Tribute Tea under cold conditions were obtained using the Illumina HiSeq platform. By analyzing changes in transcriptome data associated with the antioxidant enzyme system, plant hormone signal transduction, proline and tyrosine metabolism pathways, and transcription factors, the molecular mechanisms involved in Yunwu Tribute Tea under cold stress were investigated. RESULTS: In this study, Illumina HiSeq technology was applied to investigate the cold-tolerance mechanism. For this purpose, cDNA libraries were obtained from two groups of samples, namely the cold-treated group (DW) and the control group (CK). A total of 185,973 unigenes were produced from 511,987 assembled transcripts; among these, 16,020 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) (corrected p-value < 0.01, |log2(fold change)| >3), including 9606 up-regulated and 6414 down-regulated genes, were obtained. Moreover, the antioxidant enzyme system, plant hormone signal transduction, proline and tyrosine metabolism pathways, and transcription factors were analyzed; based on these results, a series of candidate genes related to cold stress were screened out and discussed. The physiological indexes related to the low-temperature response were tested, along with five DEGs which were validated by quantitative real-time PCR. CONCLUSIONS: Differential gene expression analysis has confirmed that substantial cold-responsive genes are related to the antioxidant enzyme system, plant hormone signal transduction, proline metabolism pathway, tyrosine metabolism pathway, and transcription factors.
PMID: 36661533
Genes Genomics , IF:1.839 , 2023 Jan , V45 (1) : P103-122 doi: 10.1007/s13258-022-01263-8
Identification of Saccharum CaM gene family and function characterization of ScCaM1 during cold and oxidant exposure in Pichia pastoris.
Key Laboratory of Sugarcane Biology and Genetic Breeding, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, College of Agriculture, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou, 350002, China.; Key Laboratory of Sugarcane Biology and Genetic Breeding, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, College of Agriculture, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou, 350002, China. jlguo@fafu.edu.cn.
BACKGROUND: Calmodulin (CaM) plays an essential role in binding calcium ions and mediating the interpretation of Ca(2+) signals in plants under various stresses. However, the evolutionary relationship of CaM family proteins in Saccharum has not been elucidated. OBJECTIVE: To deduce and explore the evolution and function of Saccharum CaM family. METHODS: A total of 104 typical CaMs were obtained from Saccharum spontaneum and other 18 plant species. The molecular characteristics and evolution of those CaM proteins were analyzed. A typical CaM gene, ScCaM1, was subsequently cloned from sugarcane (Saccharum spp. hybrid). Its expression patterns in different tissues and under various abiotic stresses were assessed by quantitative real-time PCR. Then the green fluorescent protein was used to determine the subcellular localization of ScCaM1. Finally, the function of ScCaM1 was evaluated via heterologous yeast expression systems. RESULTS: Three typical CaM members (SsCaM1, SsCaM2, and SsCaM3) were identified from the S. spontaneum genome database. CaMs were originated from the two last common ancestors before the origin of angiosperms. The number of CaM family members did not correlate to the genome size but correlated with allopolyploidization events. The ScCaM1 was more highly expressed in buds and roots than in other tissues. The expression patterns of ScCaM1 suggested that it was involved in responses to various abiotic stresses in sugarcane via different hormonal signaling pathways. Noteworthily, its expression levels appeared relatively stable during the cold exposure in the cold-tolerant variety but significantly suppressed in the cold-susceptible variety. Moreover, the recombinant yeast (Pichia pastoris) overexpressing ScCaM1 grew better than the wild-type yeast strain under cold and oxidative stresses. It was revealed that the ScCaM1 played a positive role in reactive oxygen species scavenging and conferred enhanced cold and oxidative stress tolerance to cells. CONCLUSION: This study provided comprehensive information on the CaM gene family in Saccharum and would facilitate further investigation of their functional characterization.
PMID: 35608775
Genetica , IF:1.082 , 2023 Feb , V151 (1) : P47-59 doi: 10.1007/s10709-022-00176-4
Comparative analysis of cold-responsive genes under short-term cold stimulation and cold-adaptive genes under long-term heterogeneous environments reveals a cold adaptation mechanism in weeping forsythia.
Innovation Platform of Molecular Biology, College of Landscape and Art, Henan Agricultural University, Zhengzhou, China.; State Key Laboratory of Tree Genetics and Breeding, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Beijing, China.; Horticultural Research Institute, Henan Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Zhengzhou, China.; School of Pharmacy, Henan University, Kaifeng, China.; College of Forestry, Henan Agricultural University, Zhengzhou, China. 28474257@qq.com.
Identifying cold-related genes can provide insights into the cold adaptation mechanism of weeping forsythia. In this study, we compared the changes in gene expressions and physiological and biochemical indices under short-term cold stimulation with the changes in gene sequences under a long-term heterogeneous environment to investigate the cold adaptation mechanism in weeping forsythia. The data of adaptive gene sequence changes, e.g., single nucleotide polymorphisms, were obtained from previous landscape genomics studies. The physiological and biochemical indicators and transcriptome results showed that weeping forsythia initiated a series of programs, including increasing cell osmotic pressures, scavenging ROS, activating the defense mechanism that crosses with pathogen infection, and upregulating CBF/DREB1 transcription factor 1, to cope with short-term cold stress. A reanalysis of landscape genomic data suggested that weeping forsythia responded to long-term heterogeneous cold stress by the differentiation of genes related to synthesis of aromatic substances and adenosine triphosphate. Our results supported the hypothesis that the adaptation mechanisms of species to short-term environmental stimulation and long-term stress in heterogeneous environments are different. The differences in cold tolerance among populations are not necessarily obtained by changing cold-responsive gene sequences. This study provides new insights into the cold adaptation mechanisms of plants.
PMID: 36436173
Biotechnol Rep (Amst) , 2022 Dec , V36 : Pe00762 doi: 10.1016/j.btre.2022.e00762
Callus induction and regeneration in high-altitude Himalayan rice genotype SR4 via seed explant.
Centre of Research for Development, University of Kashmir, Srinagar-190006, India.; Department of Botany, Central University of Kashmir, Ganderbal, Jammu and Kashmir, India.; Division of Plant Biotechnology, SKUAST-K Shalimar, Srinagar-190025, India.
SR4 genotype of rice is high altitude Himalayan rice prone to various abiotic stresses such as cold stress and therefore gives a poor yield. An efficient protocol for callusing and regeneration via direct and indirect means was established using mature seeds as an explant which can be utilized for molecular studies for genetic advancement of Himalayan rice genotype SR4 through transformation. Highest frequency (96.6%) of callus induction was obtained on MS media 3.0 mg/L 2, 4-D. While maximum regeneration frequency (100%), number of shoots with maximum length 9.14 +/- 0.204 (cm) from callus was recovered from MS media amended with 5.0 mg/L BAP in combination with 0.5 mg/L NAA with highest number of shoots having an average shoot length 9.14 +/- 0.204 (cm) after four weeks of culture. Direct multiple shoot regeneration from seed explants was obtained using various concentrations of TDZ and BAP with highest regeneration frequency was observed on MS media fortified with 6 mg/L of TDZ with maximum number of shoots. The shoots developed roots on MS media supplemented with 0.6 mg/L IBA.
PMID: 36110199