Abstract
The increasing occurrence of floods hinders agricultural crop production and threatens global food security. The majority of vegetable crops are highly sensitive to flooding and it is unclear how these plants use flooding signals to acclimate to impending oxygen deprivation (hypoxia). Previous research has shown that the early flooding signal ethylene augments hypoxia responses and improves survival in Arabidopsis. To unravel how cultivated and wild Solanum species integrate ethylene signaling to control subsequent hypoxia acclimation, we studied the transcript levels of a selection of marker genes, whose upregulation is indicative of ethylene-mediated hypoxia acclimation in Arabidopsis. Our results suggest that ethylene-mediated hypoxia acclimation is conserved in both shoots and roots of the wild Solanum species bittersweet (Solanum dulcamara) and a waterlogging-tolerant potato (Solanum tuberosum) cultivar. However, ethylene did not enhance the transcriptional hypoxia response in roots of a waterlogging-sensitive potato cultivar, suggesting that waterlogging tolerance in potato could depend on ethylene-controlled hypoxia responses in the roots. Finally, we show that ethylene rarely enhances hypoxia-adaptive genes and does not improve hypoxia survival in tomato (Solanum lycopersicum). We conclude that analyzing genes indicative of ethylene-mediated hypoxia acclimation is a promising approach to identifying key signaling cascades that confer flooding tolerance in crops.
Highlights
Global food demand is expected to double by 2050, as a result of the rising world population and shifting human diets [1]
To unravel whether ethylene-mediated hypoxia acclimation contributes to potential flooding tolerance differences in potato, we first explored whether variation in flooding tolerance exists across
To unravel whether ethylene-mediated hypoxia acclimation contributes to potential flooding six elite potato cultivars
Summary
Global food demand is expected to double by 2050, as a result of the rising world population and shifting human diets [1]. Future food security is highly challenged by a decline in arable land and an increase in crop losses, due to the consequences of a changing climate [1,2]. Elevated temperatures and extreme precipitation patterns due to climate change have led to an increase in the frequency and severity of flooding events [3]. Floods strongly impair agricultural crop production and exacerbate the food security crisis [3,4]. In order to minimize crop losses and safeguard global food security, it is paramount to develop flood-tolerant crops in the near future [5]. Submerged terrestrial plants encounter hypoxia, due to impaired gas diffusion under water, and flooding survival strongly depends on traits that enhance hypoxia
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