SiFBA5, a cold-responsive factor from Saussurea involucrata promotes cold resilience and biomass increase in transgenic tomato plants under cold stress

• Published in: BMC plant biology Vol. 21; no. 1; p. 75
• Main Authors: Mu, Jianqiang, Fu, Yajuan, Liu, Bucang, Zhang, Yao, Wang, Aiying, Li, Yuxia, Zhu, Jianbo
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London BioMed Central 04.02.2021; BioMed Central Ltd; BMC
• Subjects: Agriculture; Bioinformatics; Biomass; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Calvin cycle; Carbon; Chlorophyll; Chloroplasts; Cold; cold shock response; Cold stress; Cold tolerance; Crop yield; Dihydroxyacetone phosphate; Environmental aspects; Enzymes; Flowers & plants; Freezing; Fructose; Fructose-1,6-biphosphate aldolase; fructose-bisphosphate aldolase; Gene pool; Genes; Genetic aspects; genetically modified organisms; Genomes; Gluconeogenesis; Glycerol; Glycolysis; Hardiness; Initial stresses; Life Sciences; Localization; Low temperature; Low temperature environments; Low temperature resistance; Metabolism; Molecular modelling; Mountain regions; Mountainous areas; mountains; phenotype; phosphates; Photosynthesis; plant response; Plant Sciences; Plant-abiotic interactions; Plants; promoter regions; Research Article; Saussurea involucrata; SiFBA5; Snow cover; species; Tomatoes; Transcription; transcription (genetics); Transgenic plants; Tree Biology; China; Chlorophyll; Cold stress; Photosynthesis; Calvin cycle; SiFBA5
• ISSN: 1471-2229; 1471-2229
• DOI: 10.1186/s12870-021-02851-8

Background Saussurea involucrata survives in extreme arctic conditions and is very cold-resistant. This species grows in rocky, mountainous areas with elevations of 2400–4100 m, which are snow-covered year-round and are subject to freezing temperatures. S. involucrata ’s ability to survive in an extreme low-temperature environment suggests that it has particularly high photosynthetic efficiency, providing a magnificent model, and rich gene pool, for the analysis of plant cold stress response. Fructose-1, 6-bisphosphate aldolase (FBA) is a key enzyme in the photosynthesis process and also mediates the conversion of fructose 1, 6-bisphosphate (FBP) into dihydroxyacetone phosphate (DHAP) and glycerol triphosphate (GAP) during glycolysis and gluconeogenesis. The molecular mechanisms underlying S. involucrata ’s cold tolerance are still unclear; therefore, our work aims to investigate the role of FBA in plant cold-stress response. Results In this study, we identified a cold-responsive gene, SiFBA5 , based on a preliminary low-temperature, genome-wide transcriptional profiling of S. involucrata . Expression analysis indicated that cold temperatures rapidly induced transcriptional expression of SiFBA5 , suggesting that SiFBA5 participates in the initial stress response. Subcellular localization analysis revealed that SiFBA5 is localized to the chloroplast. Transgenic tomato plants that overexpressed SiFBA5 were generated using a CaMV 35S promoter. Phenotypic observation suggested that the transgenic plants displayed increased cold tolerance and photosynthetic efficiency in comparison with wild-type plants. Conclusion Cold stress has a detrimental impact on crop yield. Our results demonstrated that SiFBA5 positively regulates plant response to cold stress, which is of great significance for increasing crop yield under cold stress conditions.