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Plastid signals induce ALTERNATIVE OXIDASE expression to enhance the cold stress tolerance in Arabidopsis thaliana

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Abstract

The external environment affects the metabolic activities of plants, and plastids play an important role in sensing the environmental situation and executing adaptive responses to environmental stresses. Previous studies have indicated that some plastid-signaling deficient mutants have impaired basal thermo-tolerance, drought tolerance, and high-light tolerance. In this study, we investigated the role of plastid signals in alleviating cold stress damage in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana). Thermographic analysis revealed that wide-type (Col-0) plants maintained a higher temperature at about 22 °C, whereas the leaf temperature of plastid-signaling deficient mutants was about 18 °C upon 4 °C cold stress. The relative water content of the mutants significantly decreased after cold treatment, whereas H2O2 content, electrolyte leakage, and malonaldehyde content increased compared with Col-0. The cyanide-resistant respiration rates of the mutants were lower than those of wild-type plants. Quantitative real-time PCR analysis revealed that AOX1a (encoding alternative oxidase, a key enzyme for cyanide-resistant respiration) transcripts in the mutants were much lower than wild-type after cold stress. Moreover, investigations with aox1a mutant further indicated that plastid signals enhance plant cold stress tolerance mainly through the induction of AOX1a.

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Abbreviations

CK:

Control check

CN-resistant respiration:

Cyanide-resistant respiration

EL:

Electrolyte leakage

LHCB:

Light-harvesting chlorophyll a/b-binding protein

MDA:

Malonaldehyde

NF:

Norflurazon

PGE:

Plastid gene expression

qRT-PCR:

Quantitative real-time PCR

RWC:

Relative water content

S:

Sucrose

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Nature Science Foundation of China (91017004 and 31070210), Doctoral Foundation of the Ministry of Education (20110181110059 and 20120181130008), and Sichuan and Chengdu Nature Science Foundation (2010JQ0080 and 11DXYB097JH-027). No conflict of interest declared.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Bio-Resource and Eco-Environment, College of Life Science, State Key Laboratory of Hydraulics and Mountain River Engineering, Sichuan University, Chengdu, 610064, China

    He Tang, Da-wei Zhang, Shu Yuan, Feng Zhu, Fei Xu, Fa-Qiong Fu, Shuo-xun Wang & Hong-Hui Lin

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  1. He Tang
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  2. Da-wei Zhang
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  3. Shu Yuan
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  7. Shuo-xun Wang
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  8. Hong-Hui Lin
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Correspondence to Hong-Hui Lin.

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Tang, H., Zhang, Dw., Yuan, S. et al. Plastid signals induce ALTERNATIVE OXIDASE expression to enhance the cold stress tolerance in Arabidopsis thaliana . Plant Growth Regul 74, 275–283 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10725-014-9918-8

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