Time-Series Transcriptome Analysis Reveals the Molecular Mechanism of Ethylene Reducing Cold Sensitivity of Postharvest ‘Huangguan’ Pear

Abstract

‘Huangguan’ pear (Pyrus bretschneideri Rehd) fruit is susceptible to cold, characterized by developing peel browning spots (PBS) during cold storage. Additionally, ethylene pretreatment reduces chilling injury (CI) and inhibits PBS occurrence, but the mechanism of CI remains unclear. Here, we deciphered the dynamic transcriptional changes during the PBS occurrence with and without ethylene pretreatment via time-series transcriptome. We found that ethylene suppressed the cold-signaling gene expression, thereby decreasing the cold sensitivity of the ‘Huangguan’ fruit. Moreover, the “Yellow” module closely correlated with PBS occurrence was identified via weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA), and this module was related to plant defense via Gene Ontology (GO) enrichment analysis. Local motif enrichment analysis suggested that the “Yellow” module genes were regulated by ERF and WRKY transcription factors. Functional studies demonstrated that PbWRKY31 has a conserved WRKY domain, lacks transactivation activity, and localizes in the nucleus. PbWRKY31-overexpressed Arabidopsis were hypersensitive to cold, with higher expression levels of cold signaling and defense genes, suggesting that PbWRKY31 participates in regulating plant cold sensitivity. Collectively, our findings provide a comprehensive transcriptional overview of PBS occurrence and elucidate the molecular mechanism by which ethylene reduces the cold sensitivity of ‘Huangguan’ fruit as well as the potential role of PbWRKY31 in this process.