Salicylic Acid Improves the Constitutive Freezing Tolerance of Potato as Revealed by Transcriptomics and Metabolomics Analyses

Freezing severely impacts potato production. Deciphering the pathways and metabolites that regulate the freezing tolerance of potato is useful in cultivation and breeding for hardiness. In the present study, <i>Solanum acaule</i> was identified to be more freezing tolerant than <i>...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Lin Chen, Feiyan Zhou, Ye Chen, Yongqi Fan, Kangkang Zhang, Qing Liu, Wei Tu, Fujing Jiang, Guangcun Li, Hongbo Zhao, Botao Song
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2022-12-01
Series:International Journal of Molecular Sciences
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Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/24/1/609
Description
Summary:Freezing severely impacts potato production. Deciphering the pathways and metabolites that regulate the freezing tolerance of potato is useful in cultivation and breeding for hardiness. In the present study, <i>Solanum acaule</i> was identified to be more freezing tolerant than <i>S. tuberosum</i>. Furthermore, the two genotypes before/after exposure to 4 °C for 7 d with additional −1 °C for 12 h were analysed by RNA-seq and metabolomics, and the results were compared with the previous −1 °C for 12 h. The results showed that <i>S. acaule</i> activated numerous genes that differed from those of <i>S. tuberosum</i>. Among the genes, five pathways, such as the hormone signalling pathway, which includes salicylic acid, were enriched. Further metabolomics analysis showed that the content of salicylic acid was improved in <i>S. acaule</i> in response to −1 °C for 12 h. Moreover, exogenous application of 0.1 mM salicylic acid to potato was shown to improve constitutive freezing tolerance and increase the expression of <i>HSFC1</i>. Following transcriptome and metabolome analyses, it was documented that the content of SA that increased in freezing-tolerant <i>S. acaule</i> after exposure to cold condition, associated with the SA signalling pathway, enhanced potato freezing tolerance, probably through <i>HSFC1</i>.
ISSN:1661-6596
1422-0067