Abstract
The tropical plant Plumbago auriculata can tolerate subzero temperatures without induction of apoptosis after cold acclimation in autumn, making it more cold tolerant than conventional tropical plants. In this study, we found that low temperatures significantly affected the photosynthetic system of P. auriculata. Using transcriptome sequencing, PaDREB1A was identified as a key transcription factor involved in the response to cold stress in P. auriculata. This transcription factor may be regulated by upstream JA signaling and regulates downstream ERD4 and ERD7 expression to resist cold stress. Overexpression of PaDREB1A significantly enhanced freezing resistance, protected the photosynthetic system, and enhanced the ROS scavenging mechanism under cold stress in Arabidopsis thaliana. Additionally, PaDREB1A significantly enhanced the expression of CORs and CAT1 in A. thaliana, which further activated the downstream pathway to enhance plant cold tolerance. This study explored the possible different regulatory modes of CBFs in tropical plants and can serve as an important reference for the introduction of tropical plants to low-temperature regions.
Highlights
According to the latest assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), global climate change is intensifying
The Fv/Fm value started to decrease at 24 h. This observation indicated that cold stress at 4°C caused some degree of damage to the leaves of P. auriculata, but this damage was mild, and the leaves gradually recovered during plant adaptation
We found that the soil and plant analyzer development (SPAD) values of P. auriculata under cold stress remained almost unchanged for 72 h
Summary
According to the latest assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), global climate change is intensifying. The photosystem is extremely sensitive to low temperatures and is an important indicator of whether plants have been subjected to cold stress (Chassot et al, 2001; Bilska and Sowiński, 2010). Cold stress has significant effects on the chloroplast structure, photosynthetic pigment content, photosynthetic rate, and other important physiological and biochemical parameters in plants. The non-photochemical quenching (NPQ) of plants increases (Kramer et al, 2004; Ozturk et al, 2013), which hinders the heat dissipation pathway of photosystem II (PS II), resulting in the absorption of light energy by photosynthetic pigments far exceeding its consumption and resulting in photoinhibition (Liang et al, 2009). Cold stress increases the accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in plants; ROS cause oxidative damage to DNA and proteins, damage the membrane structure, and decrease the fluidity of the cell membrane, affecting the exchange of information and materials. The three most important antioxidant enzymes that regulate the balance of ROS metabolism are superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), and peroxidase (POD; Wang et al, 2018)
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