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Application of galactinol to tomato enhances tolerance to cold and heat stresses

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Abstract

Galactinol, a galactosyl donor, is the key substrate in raffinose family oligosaccharide (RFO) biosynthesis pathways. Many studies proved that galactinol also regulates some defense-related genes to be transcribed as a sugar signal under biotic and abiotic stresses. There are four galactinol synthase (SlGolS) genes in tomato. In this study, SlGolS1, SlGolS2, and SlGolS4 responded to cold stress, especially SlGolS1 stems treated for 12 h and SlGolS4 stems treated for 24 h. Under heat stress, the expression levels of SlGolS1, SlGolS2, and SlGolS3, especially SlGolS1 and SlGolS2, increased in leaves, roots, and stems. When expressed in E. coli cells, SlGolS2 and SlGolS4 enhanced cold tolerance, whereas SlGolS1 and SlGolS3 improved heat tolerance. These results suggested that SlGolS family members played different roles in tolerance to cold and heat stresses. In addition, the application of galactinol or galactinol + α-galactosidase inhibitor (DGJ) improved the cold and heat tolerances of tomato plants, whereas the single application of DGJ had no effect. Interestingly, the applications of DGJ, galactinol, and galactinol + DGJ also affected the expression levels of SlRS, SlSTS, and SlAGAL under cold and heat stresses. These findings indicated that galactinol was involved in the biosynthesis pathways of RFOs as a galactosyl donor and regulated the expression levels of RFO biosynthesis and breakdown-related genes as a sugar signal under cold and heat stresses.

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Data availability

All data in this study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2019YFD1001902), and National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 31772295, U1708232).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Horticulture Department, Shenyang Agricultural University, Shenyang, 110866, China

    Jian Ma, Sida Meng, Chunpeng Pang, Xiaomeng Zhao, Huidong Zhang, Shou Wang, Tao Xu, Yi He, Yufeng Liu & Mingfang Qi

  2. Agricultural Department, Shihezi University, Shihezi, 832003, China

    Yudong Liu

  3. National and Local Joint Engineering Research Center of Northern Horticultural Facilities Design and Application Technology (Liaoning), Shenyang, 110866, China

    Jian Ma, Sida Meng, Chunpeng Pang, Xiaomeng Zhao, Huidong Zhang, Shou Wang, Tao Xu, Yi He, Yufeng Liu & Mingfang Qi

  4. Key Laboratory of Protected Horticulture (Shenyang Agricultural University), Ministry of Education, Shenyang, 110866, China

    Jian Ma, Sida Meng, Chunpeng Pang, Xiaomeng Zhao, Huidong Zhang, Shou Wang, Tao Xu, Yufeng Liu & Mingfang Qi

  5. College of Bioscience and Biotechnology, Shenyang Agricultural University, Shenyang, 110866, China

    Li Zhang

  6. Key Laboratory of Agricultural Biotechnology of Liaoning Province, Shenyang Agricultural University, Shenyang, 110866, China

    Li Zhang

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  1. Yudong Liu
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Contributions

YL and MQ designed the total experiments. YL and ZL planned, conducted and analyzed the gene expression data. JM, SM, and CP finished the application of galactinol and DGJ assays. XZ, HZ, and SW conducted physiological experiments. TX and YH finished the analysis of SlGolS genes in E. coli. YL wrote the manuscript, and all the authors checked it.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Yufeng Liu or Mingfang Qi.

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Communicated by Sung-Chur Sim.

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Liu, Y., Zhang, L., Ma, J. et al. Application of galactinol to tomato enhances tolerance to cold and heat stresses. Hortic. Environ. Biotechnol. 63, 311–323 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13580-021-00402-6

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