PsCor413pm2, a Plasma Membrane-Localized, Cold-Regulated Protein from Phlox subulata, Confers Low Temperature Tolerance in Arabidopsis.

Aimin Zhou,He Li,Yang Li,Enhui Liu,Shufang Gong,Jingang Wang,Shuang Feng

doi:10.3390/ijms19092579

Abstract

Low temperature stress adversely affects plant growth and development. Isolation and characterization of cold response genes from cold-tolerant plants help to understand the mechanism underlying low temperature tolerance. In this study, PsCor413pm2, a cold-regulated (COR) gene isolated from Phlox subulata, was transferred to Arabidopsis plants to investigate its function. Real-time quantitative PCR analysis revealed that PsCor413pm2 expression was induced by cold. Subcellular localization revealed that the PsCor413pm2-green fluorescent protein (GFP) fusion protein localized to the plasma membrane in tobacco and Arabidopsis plants. Furthermore, overexpression of PsCor413pm2 in Arabidopsis plants enhanced tolerance to low temperature stress. Transgenic Arabidopsis roots had more influx of Ca2+ after a cold shock than wild-type plants, as shown using non-invasive micro-test technology (NMT). Moreover, the transcription abundance of five COR and two C-repeat (CRT) binding factor (CBF) genes in transgenic Arabidopsis plants was higher than that in the wild-type plants under cold stress. Taken together, our results suggest that overexpression of PsCor413pm2 enhances low temperature tolerance in Arabidopsis plants by affecting Ca2+ flux and the expression of stress-related COR and CBF genes.

Highlights

Low temperatures adversely affect plant growth, development, and crop productivity [1]
inducer of CBF expression 1 (ICE1)-activated C-repeat binding factors (CBFs) regulates the expression of COR genes, which confer low temperature tolerance in plants [1,4,5,6]
Subcellular localization of green fluorescent protein (GFP) as a fusion marker showed that PsCor413pm2-GFP was localized to the plasma membrane in Arabidopsis (Figure 3), indicating that the fusion of GFP did not affect the normal localization of PsCor413pm2

Summary

Introduction

Low temperatures adversely affect plant growth, development, and crop productivity [1]. During the process of long-term adaptive evolution, some temperate plant species have evolved a series of physiological and molecular mechanisms to acclimate to low temperatures. Among these mechanisms, cold signaling pathways dependent on C-repeat binding factors (CBFs) are the best-understood regulatory pathways involved in cold acclimation [2,3]. CBF proteins can bind to C-repeat (CRT) cis-elements and activate transcription of the downstream cold-regulated (COR) genes to increase cold tolerance [1,4,5,6]. Studies have shown that expression of COR genes is positively correlated with cold tolerance in plants [7,8,9,10]. Our study helps to further characterize the function of Cor413 proteins

Methods

Results

Conclusion