Abstract
Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum Mill.) is sensitive to chilling stress during all stages of plant development. Genetic variation for chilling tolerance exists between cultivated tomato and its related wild species, but intra-specific variation has not been thoroughly investigated so far. Seedlings of 63 tomato accessions were evaluated under low temperature and two contrasting cultivars were identified for the trait: Albenga and San Marzano, the former being more chillingtolerant. To clarify the molecular mechanisms of chilling tolerance in tomato, changes in candidate gene expressions in the two tomato genotypes were analysed, using quantitative RT-PCR. Candidate genes were chosen among those known to be induced by chilling and/or with putative roles in CBF/DREB and ROS-mediated pathways. Results show that besides a CBF regulon, whose function is conserved, ROS and C2H2-type zinc finger protein-mediated cold signalling pathways were also involved in chilling tolerance. Under the chilling stress, the up-regulation of respective transcripts was consistently higher in the chilling-tolerant genotype than in the chilling-sensitive ones.
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Abbreviations
- ABA:
-
abscisic acid
- AP2/ERF:
-
APETALA 2/ethylene response factor
- Aux/IAA:
-
auxin/indole-3-acetic acid
- bZIP:
-
basic region-leucine zipper
- CBF/DREB:
-
C-repeat binding factor/dehydration-responsive element binding
- COR:
-
cold-regulated
- CRT/DRE:
-
C-repeat/dehydration responsive element
- Ct:
-
cycle threshold
- DHNs:
-
dehydrins
- DMRT:
-
Duncan’s multiple range test
- EAR-motif:
-
ERF-associated amphiphilic repression motif
- EF-1-α:
-
elongation factor 1-α
- EL:
-
electrolyte leakage
- ERF:
-
ethylene response factor
- FAD:
-
fatty acid desaturase
- GLM:
-
generalized linear model
- ILs:
-
introgression lines
- LEA:
-
late embryogenesis abundant
- MYB:
-
myeloblastosis
- NLS:
-
nuclear localization signal
- NTC:
-
no template control
- RT-qPCR:
-
reverse transcription-quantitative PCR
- RCBD:
-
randomized complete block design
- REST©:
-
relative expression software tool©
- ROS:
-
reactive oxygen species
- SGN:
-
sol genomics network
- TFs:
-
transcription factors
- USP:
-
universal stress protein
- WT:
-
wild type
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Acknowledgments: The authors thank to the C.M. Rick Tomato Genetics Resource Center, Department of Plant Sciences, University of California, Davis, USA and Dr. Nazareno Acciarri (the CRA-ORA Research Unit for Vegetable Crops, Monsampolo del Tronto, Italy) for providing seeds of 37 and 26 tomato accessions, respectively. We also wish to thank Dr. Fulvia Rizza for her excellent technical assistance in the phenotypic examination of the plants. Authors acknowledge partial support of PRIN2006, the TomANTHO Project of the Italian Ministry of University and Research (MiUR).
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Caffagni, A., Pecchioni, N., Francia, E. et al. Candidate gene expression profiling in two contrasting tomato cultivars under chilling stress. Biol Plant 58, 283–295 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10535-014-0403-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10535-014-0403-z