Comparative physiological and proteomic response to abrupt low temperature stress between two winter wheat cultivars differing in low temperature tolerance

Abstract

Abrupt temperature reduction in winter wheat at either autumn seedling stage prior to vernalisation or early spring crown stage can cause severe crop damage and reduce production. Many studies have reported the physiological and molecular mechanisms underlying cold acclimation in winter wheat by comparing it with spring wheat. However, processes associated with abrupt temperature reduction in autumn seedling stage prior to vernalisation in winter wheat are less understood. In this study, physiological and molecular responses of winter wheat seedlings to abrupt low temperature (LT) stress were characterised in the relatively LT-tolerant winter wheat cultivar Shixin 828 by comparing it with the relatively LT-sensitive cultivar Shiluan 02-1 using a combination of physiological, proteomics and biochemical approaches. Shixin 828 was tolerant to abrupt LT stress, while Shiluan 02-1 exhibited high levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and leaf cell death. Significant increases in relative abundance of antioxidant-related proteins were found in Shixin 828 leaves, which correlate with observed higher antioxidant enzyme activity in Shixin 828 compared to Shiluan 02-1. Proteomics analysis also indicated that carbohydrate metabolism-related proteins were more abundant in Shiluan 02-1, correlating with observed accumulation of soluble sugars in Shiluan 02-1 leaves. Amino acid analysis revealed a strong response to LT stress in wheat leaves. A negative effect of exogenous sucrose on LT tolerance was also found. This study indicates that high ROS scavenging capacity and high abundance of photosynthesis-related proteins might play a role in winter wheat response to abrupt LT stress. In contrast, excess accumulation of soluble sugars might be disadvantageous for LT tolerance in the wheat cultivar Shiluan 02-1.

Effects of Cold Stress on the Photosynthesis and Antioxidant System of <em>Rhododendron chrysanthum</em> Pall.

“…In our study, the relative activities and the abundances of GPX and APX showed remarkable increase in EG than in CG (Figure 4), suggesting that these proteins may represent the important cold-responsive proteins and are crucial for increasing cold stress tolerance of plants. Comparable results were also found in winter wheat [19]. Our results supported the notion that GPX and APXs, as the key ROS scavenging enzymes, were involved in the coordinated regulation of the homeostasis maintenance under cold stress and played significant roles in the improvement of cold resistance.…”

Low temperature tolerance in plants: Changes at the protein level

“…Boosted formation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) induces enhanced expression of ROS scavenging enzymes, mainly participating in ascorbate-glutathione cycle. Xu et al (2013) found that frost-sensitive winter wheat cultivars exhibited high levels of ROS and leaf cell death in response to abrupt freezing stress, whereas significant increases in relative abundance of antioxidant-related proteins were found in frost-tolerant cultivar leaves. These proteomic results emphasize the assumption that freezing-tolerant plants are capable of managing ROS-mediated damage more efficiently than sensitive ones.…”

“…Under LT stress, biosynthesis of free and proteinogenic amino acids can be significantly affected as well. An enhanced abundance of several proteins involved in the formation of methionine (methionine synthase) and S-adenosylmethionine (S-adenosylmethionine synthase) has been reported under cold stress Xu et al, 2013). S-adenosylmethionine is the precursor of several stress-related metabolites as glycine betaine, polyamines, hydroxymugineic acids and ethylene (Kosová et al, 2014a).…”

Metabolite profiling of tea (Camellia sinensis L.) leaves in winter.

“…Many studies have pointed out that there are great changes in the growth, productivity and morphology of other plants after exposure to low temperatures, because of the damage to their RNAs (Kaplan et al, 2007), proteins (Cheng et al, 2014;Xu et al, 2013), and cell membranes (Cook et al, 2004;Wang et al, 2003). Methods used to assess cold responses of tea plants range from physiological http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.scienta.2015.05.022 0304-4238/© 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.…”