Melatonin is an important secondary messenger that plays a central role in plant growth, as well as abiotic and biotic stress tolerance. However, the underlying physiological and molecular mechanisms of melatonin-mediated cold tolerance, especially interactions between melatonin and other key molecules in the plant stress response, remain unknown. Here, the interrelation between melatonin and abscisic acid (ABA) was investigated in two genotypes of Elymus nutans Griseb., the cold-tolerant Damxung (DX) and the cold-sensitive Gannan (GN) under cold stress. Pre-treatment with exogenous melatonin or ABA alleviated oxidative injury via scavenging ROS, while enhancing both antioxidant enzyme activities and non-enzymatic antioxidant contents. Treatment of fluridone, an ABA biosynthesis inhibitor caused membrane lipid peroxidation and lowered melatonin-induced antioxidant defense responses. It is worth noting that cold stress significantly induced both endogenous melatonin and ABA levels in both genotypes. Application of melatonin increased ABA production, while fluridone significantly suppressed melatonin-induced ABA accumulation. ABA and fluridone pre-treatments failed to affect the endogenous melatonin concentration. Moreover, exogenous melatonin up-regulated the expression of cold-responsive genes in an ABA-independent manner. These results indicate that both ABA-dependent and ABA-independent pathways may contribute to melatonin-induced cold tolerance in E. nutans.

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oxide is involved in abscisic acid-induced photosynthesis and antioxidant system of tall fescue seedlings response to low-light stress, Environmental and Experimental Botany (2018),

Tomato powdery mildew, caused by Oidium neolycopersici, is a fungal disease that results in severe yield loss in infected plants. Herein, we describe the function of a class of proteins, soluble N-ethylmaleimide-sensitive factor attachment protein receptors (SNAREs), which play a role in vesicle transport during defense signaling. To date, there have been no reports describing the function of tomato SNAREs during resistance signaling to powdery mildew. Using a combination of classical plant pathology-, genetics-, and cell biology-based approaches, we evaluate the role of ShNPSN11 in resistance to the downy mildew pathogen O. neolycopersici. Quantitative RT-PCR analysis of tomato SNAREs revealed that ShNPSN11 mRNA accumulation in disease-resistant varieties was significantly increased following pathogen, compared with susceptible varieties, suggesting a role during induced defense signaling. Using in planta subcellular localization, we demonstrate that ShNPSN11 was primarily localized at the plasma membrane, consistent with the localization of SNARE proteins and their role in defense signaling and trafficking. Silencing of ShNPSN11 resulted in increased susceptibility to O. neolycopersici, with pathogen-induced levels of H2O2 and cell death elicitation in ShNPSN11-silenced lines showing a marked reduction. Transient expression of ShNPSN11 did not result in the induction of a hypersensitive cell death response or suppress cell death induced by BAX. Taken together, these data demonstrate that ShNPSNl11 plays an important role in defense activation and host resistance to O. neolycopersici in tomato LA1777.

The plant cytoskeleton, including microtubules and microfilaments, is one of the important factors in determining the polarity of cell division and growth, as well as the interaction of plants with invading pathogens. In defense responses of wheat against the stripe rust (Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici) infection, hypersensitive response is the most crucial event to prevent the spread of pathogens. In order to reveal the effect of microtubules on the hypersensitive cell death and H2O2 accumulation in the interaction of wheat (Triticum aestivum) cv. Suwon 11 with an incompatible race, CYR23, wheat leaves were treated with microtubule inhibitor, oryzalin, before inoculation. The results showed that the frequency of infection sites with hypersensitive response occurrence was significantly reduced, and hypersensitive cell death in wheat leaves was suppressed compared to the control. In addition, the frequency and the incidence of infected cells with H2O2 accumulation were also reduced after the treatment with oryzalin. Those results indicated that microtubules are related to hypersensitive response and H2O2 accumulation in wheat induced by the stripe rust, and depolymerization of microtubules reduces the resistance of plants to pathogen infection in incompatible interaction, suggesting that microtubules play a potential role in the expression of resistance of wheat against the stripe rust fungus.