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Exogenous Spermidine Improves Chilling Tolerance in Sweet Corn Seedlings by Regulation on Abscisic Acid, ROS and Ca2+ Pathways

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Abstract

Chilling stress is a major abiotic constraint that affects sweet corn seedling establishment. Spermidine (Spd) is known to participate in the cold stress response in plants, nonetheless, the molecular mechanisms are largely unknown. The present study reported that exogenous Spd not only stimulated seedling growth but also enhanced photosynthetic attributes under chilling stress. Further analysis revealed that Spd application resulted in depressed abscisic acid (ABA) content and affected the expression of ABA-responsive genes. The augmented antioxidant enzymes activities, coupled with declined reactive oxygen species (ROS) content, were observed in response to Spd treatment under chilling stress. Moreover, Spd up-regulated the transcription levels of some Ca2+ transport-related genes. We propose that Spd contributes to cold tolerance in sweet corn seedlings via the regulation of genes involved in the ROS, ABA pathways and Ca2+ transport.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the Startup Foundation for Introducing Talent of Shaoxing University Yuanpei College (9999910302).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Yuanpei College, Shaoxing University, Qunxianzhong Road, No. 2799, Shaoxing, 312000, Zhejiang, China

    Shuyu Cai, Guofu Wang, Hua Xu, Jianxin Liu, Jie Luo & Yi Shen

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  1. Shuyu Cai
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  2. Guofu Wang
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  3. Hua Xu
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  4. Jianxin Liu
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  5. Jie Luo
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  6. Yi Shen
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Contributions

SYC initiated the project, designed the experiments, analyzed the data and drafted the manuscript. GFW, HX and JXL contributed to the antioxidant enzymes and HPLC analysis. JL and YS performed the experiments of qRT-PCR analyses. All authors read and approved the final version of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Shuyu Cai.

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Cai, S., Wang, G., Xu, H. et al. Exogenous Spermidine Improves Chilling Tolerance in Sweet Corn Seedlings by Regulation on Abscisic Acid, ROS and Ca2+ Pathways. J. Plant Biol. 64, 487–499 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12374-021-09319-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12374-021-09319-0

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