Lsi1 plays an active role in enhancing the chilling tolerance of rice roots

Abstract

With global climate change in progress, a particular problem is that sudden drops in temperature affect the production of rice. In this study, we explored how to overcome the effects of chilling injury on rice seedlings. Wild-type Dular (WT) plants and Lsi1 (low silicon rice 1) overexpressing Dular plants (Lsi1-OX) were used as research materials. We found that Lsi1 enhanced the antioxidant system and non-structural carbohydrates (NSC) of rice at physiological levels. On this basis, Isobaric Tag for Relative Absolute Quantitation (iTRAQ) technology was used to examine the expression of the rice root proteins in response to low temperature stress. In addition, a total of 433 proteins were differentially expressed in this study, of which 284 were upregulated and 149 were downregulated. These proteins are divided into 24 functions. Moreover, our analysis found that the signaling pathway of the Lsi1-OX plant roots is significantly enhanced under low temperature stress, which in turn, led to the development of resistance reaction and transport pathways, indicating that Lsi1 increases the ability of rice to perceive and transmit low-temperature signals and stimulate the corresponding biochemical processes. In this study, we provided a theoretical basis to understand the mechanism related to the cold resistance of plants and therefor, accelerate the molecular breeding process of low temperature resistant crops.