Plant Genomics & Molecular Improvement of Colored Fiber Lab, College of Life Sciences and Medicine, Zhejiang Sci-Tech University, Hangzhou, 310018, China.
Crop Institute, Anhui Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Hefei, 230031, China.
BMC Plant Biol. 2020 Feb 6;20(1):62. doi: 10.1186/s12870-020-2253-5.
Cold stress is one of the primary environmental factors that affect plant growth and productivity, especially for crops like Brassica napus that live through cold seasons. Till recently, although a number of genes and pathways involved in B. napus cold response have been revealed by independent studies, a genome-wide identification of the key regulators and the regulatory networks is still lack. In this study, we investigated the transcriptomes of cold stressed semi-winter and winter type rapeseeds in short day condition, mainly with the purpose to systematically identify the functional conserved transcription factors (TFs) in cold response of B. napus.
Global modulation of gene expression was observed in both the semi-winter type line (158A) and the winter type line (SGDH284) rapeseeds, in response to a seven-day chilling stress in short-day condition. Function analysis of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) revealed enhanced stresses response mechanisms and inhibited photosynthesis in both lines, as well as a more extensive inhibition of some primary biological processes in the semi-winter type line. Over 400 TFs were differentially expressed in response to cold stress, including 56 of them showed high similarity to the known cold response TFs and were consistently regulated in 158A and SGDH284, as well as 25 TFs which targets were over-represented in the total DEGs. A further investigation based on their interactions indicated the critical roles of several TFs in cold response of B. napus.
In summary, our results revealed the alteration of gene expression in cold stressed semi-winter and winter ecotype B. napus lines and provided a valuable collection of candidate key regulators involved in B. napus response to cold stress, which could expand our understanding of plant stress response and benefit the future improvement of the breed of rapeseeds.
冷胁迫是影响植物生长和生产力的主要环境因素之一，特别是对于像甘蓝型油菜这样经历寒冷季节的作物。直到最近，尽管通过独立研究已经揭示了一些与甘蓝型油菜冷响应相关的基因和途径，但仍然缺乏对关键调控因子和调控网络的全基因组鉴定。在这项研究中，我们调查了短日照条件下冷胁迫的半冬型和冬型油菜的转录组，主要目的是系统地鉴定甘蓝型油菜冷响应中的功能保守转录因子（TFs）。
在半冬型品系（158A）和冬型品系（SGDH284）油菜中，均观察到了在短日照条件下为期七天的冷胁迫下基因表达的全局调节。差异表达基因（DEGs）的功能分析表明，两条品系均增强了应激反应机制，抑制了光合作用，同时半冬型品系中一些初级生物过程的抑制更为广泛。超过 400 个 TF 对冷胁迫表现出差异表达，其中 56 个与已知的冷响应 TF 具有高度相似性，并在 158A 和 SGDH284 中一致调节，以及 25 个 TF 的靶基因在总 DEGs 中过度表达。进一步基于它们的相互作用进行的研究表明，一些 TF 在甘蓝型油菜的冷响应中起关键作用。
综上所述，我们的结果揭示了冷胁迫对半冬型和冬型甘蓝型油菜品系基因表达的改变，并提供了一个有价值的候选关键调控因子集合，参与了甘蓝型油菜对冷胁迫的响应，这可以扩展我们对植物应激反应的理解，并有助于未来油菜品种的改良。
