Abstract
To assess underlying metabolic processes and regulatory mechanisms during cold exposure of strawberry, integrative “omic” approaches were applied to Fragaria × ananassa Duch. ‘Korona.’ Both root and leaf tissues were examined for responses to the cold acclimation processes. Levels of metabolites, proteins, and transcripts in tissues from plants grown at 18°C were compared to those following 1–10 days of cold (2°C) exposure. When leaves and roots were subjected to GC/TOF-MS-based metabolite profiling, about 160 compounds comprising mostly structurally annotated primary and secondary metabolites, were found. Overall, ‘Korona’ showed a modest increase of protective metabolites such as amino acids (aspartic acid, leucine, isoleucine, and valine), pentoses, phosphorylated and non-phosphorylated hexoses, and distinct compounds of the raffinose pathway (galactinol and raffinose). Distinctive responses were observed in roots and leaves. By 2DE proteomics a total of 845 spots were observed in leaves; 4.6% changed significantly in response to cold. Twenty-one proteins were identified, many of which were associated with general metabolism or photosynthesis. Transcript levels in leaves were determined by microarray, where dozens of cold associated transcripts were quantitatively characterized, and levels of several potential key contributors (e.g., the dehydrin COR47 and GADb) to cold tolerance were confirmed by qRT-PCR. Cold responses are placed within the existing knowledge base of low temperature-induced changes in plants, allowing an evaluation of the uniqueness or generality of Fragaria responses in photosynthetic tissues. Overall, the cold response characteristics of ‘Korona’ are consistent with a moderately cold tolerant plant.
Highlights
Plants are constantly exposed to challenging abiotic stresses, such as temperature and water availability
Distinct identified compounds regulated upon cold acclimation are shown on pathway maps including central metabolism with glycolysis, citric acid cycle, and amino acid biosynthesis (Figure 1), ascorbate metabolism (Figure 2), and the raffinose pathway (Figure 3), These figures compare the metabolic response of ‘Korona’ in roots and leaves to responses previously reported in diploid (Ås, Tingvoll, and Alta) genotypes (Rohloff et al, 2012)
Significant changes occur in Fragaria sp. under cold acclimation, at the transcriptional, protein, and metabolite level
Summary
Plants are constantly exposed to challenging abiotic stresses, such as temperature and water availability. Following activation of the CBF regulon (comprised of 100s of genes), the plant undergoes many physiological and molecular changes that affect both primary and secondary metabolism. These mechanisms include the functional expression of hydrophilic and cryoprotective proteins (Alsheikh et al, 2003, 2005), and the metabolic regulation of low-molecular weight compounds which act as osmolytes and osmoprotectants (Vogel et al, 2006; Kaplan et al, 2007; Guy et al, 2008). In cold tolerant plants these processes lead to enhanced stress-tolerance
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