Department of Entomology, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40546, USA.
Department of Entomology, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40546, USA
J Exp Biol. 2020 Jan 27;223(Pt 2):jeb212613. doi: 10.1242/jeb.212613.
The ability to quickly respond to changes in environmental temperature is critical for organisms living in thermally variable environments. To cope with sudden drops in temperature, insects and other ectotherms are capable of rapid cold hardening (RCH), in which mild chilling significantly enhances cold tolerance within minutes. While the ecological significance of RCH is well established, the mechanisms underlying RCH are still poorly understood. Previous work has demonstrated that RCH is regulated at the cellular level by post-translational signaling mechanisms, and here we tested the hypothesis that cultured cells are capable of RCH. A 2 h cold shock at -8°C significantly reduced the metabolic viability of S2 cells, but pre-treatment with RCH at 4°C for 2 h prevented this decrease in viability. Thus, S2 cells are capable of RCH in a similar manner to whole insects and provide a new system for investigating the cell biology of RCH.
快速应对环境温度变化的能力对于生活在温度多变环境中的生物至关重要。为了应对温度骤降，昆虫和其他变温动物能够快速冷驯化（RCH），即在温和的寒冷刺激下，几分钟内就能显著提高耐寒能力。虽然 RCH 的生态意义已得到充分证实，但 RCH 的机制仍知之甚少。先前的工作表明，RCH 在细胞水平上受到翻译后信号机制的调节，在这里我们检验了这样一个假设，即培养细胞能够进行 RCH。在-8°C 下进行 2 小时的冷休克显著降低了 S2 细胞的代谢活力，但在 4°C 下预处理 2 小时可以防止这种活力下降。因此，S2 细胞能够以类似于整个昆虫的方式进行 RCH，并为研究 RCH 的细胞生物学提供了一个新系统。
