The chilling tolerance divergence 1 protein confers cold stress tolerance in processing tomato

• Published in: Plant physiology and biochemistry 2020-06, Vol.151, p.34-46
• Main Authors: Zhang, Li, Guo, Xinyong, Qin, Yujie, Feng, Bin, Wu, Yating, He, Yaling, Wang, Aiying, Zhu, Jianbo
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Antioxidants; Cold tolerance; LeCOLD1; Overexpression; RNA interference; Tomato
• ISSN: 0981-9428; 1873-2690
• DOI: 10.1016/j.plaphy.2020.03.007

Tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill [Solanum lycopersicum L.].) is an important food material and cash crop, as well as a model plant for genetic evolution and molecular biology research. However, as a cold-sensitive crop originating from the tropics, the growth and development of tomato is often affected by low temperature stress. Therefore, how processing tomatoes resist this type of stress has important theoretical and practical significance. In this study, the LeCOLD1 gene was cloned from processing tomato. Subcellular localization analysis showed that LeCOLD1 was located in the plasma membrane. Real-time quantitative PCR analysis showed that LeCOLD1 was highly expressed in roots. Drought, salt and low temperatures induced the expression of COLD1. Overexpression and RNA interference vectors of LeCOLD1 were constructed and were transformed into tomato by the Agrobacterium-mediated method, and then obtaining transgenic tomato plants. It was found that LeCOLD1 increased the height of processing tomato plants and increased the length of their roots. In addition, overexpression of LeCOLD1 significantly improved the cold resistance of the plants. Overexpressing LeCOLD1 in tomato plants reduced the damage to the cell membrane, accumulation of ROS and photoinhibition of PSII, and maintained the high activity of antioxidant enzymes and the content of osmotic regulators. Further analysis revealed that during low temperature stress, the cells maintained high levels of antioxidant enzyme activity by regulating the transcription of the genes encoding these enzymes. The results show that overexpressing LeCOLD1 in tomato increases the plants’ resistance to low temperatures, and that reducing LeCOLD1 expression makes the plants more sensitive to low temperatures. •Overexpression of LeCOLD1 enhances the cold tolerance of transgenic tomato plants.•LeCOLD1 overexpression decreases membrane damage and the production of reactive oxygen species.•LeCOLD1 overexpression increases the levels of osmotic regulators and the activities of antioxidant enzymes.•Suppression of LeCOLD1 by RNAi decreases the cold tolerance of tomato plants.