ABA and polyamines act independently in primary leaves of 
cold‐stressed tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum)

Abstract

The effects of ABA and putrescine, a polyamine, on cold-induced membrane leakage were investigated using primary leaves of wild-type and an ABA-deficient mutant, flacca, of tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.). The amount of chilling-induced electrolyte leakage from flacca leaves was much higher than that from the wild-type leaves. When applied exogenously ABA reduced cold-induced electrolyte leakage from leaves of both wild-type and the flacca mutant. However, the cold-induced electrolyte leakage from flacca leaves was not as pronounced as in the wild-type indicating that ABA is an important mediator in response to cold stress in the leaves. Putrescine reduced cold-induced electrolyte leakage from both wild-type and flacca leaves. Synthesis of putrescine in the leaves was increased by cold treatment. DFMO, a biosynthetic inhibitor of the polyamine, increased electrolyte leakage from cold-treated leaves, and exogenously applied putrescine decreased the enhanced leakage to the control level. Therefore, this polyamine is thought also to be involved in the response to cold stress of tomato leaves. Both ABA and putrescine were protective against cold stress, but exogenously applied ABA decreased the endogenous level of putrescine in the leaves. Furthermore, the DMFO-increased electrolyte leakage in cold-stressed leaves was completely abolished by the application of ABA. These results suggest that ABA is a major regulator in the response to cold stress in tomato leaves and that it does not exert its role via putrescine in the response to cold stress.

Physiological, hormonal and molecular mechanisms regulating chilling injury in horticultural species. Postharvest technologies applied to reduce its impact

“…94 Moreover, when plants were treated with an inhibitor of Put biosynthesis, the content of this PA decreased and the percentage of electrolyte leakage increased, an event also dependent on the concentration applied. 109 This hypothetical protective role of PAs, in particular Spd, against chilling in plants seems to be confirmed by the observation that transgenic plants of A. thaliana that overexpress a gene for Spdsynthase present a manifest tolerance to different types of stress, especially chilling. 111 All these results seem to indicate that the upsurge of PA content in fruits, other plant organs and whole plants showing tolerance to CI during cold storage is a cause and not a consequence of the tolerance to this stress; that is, it is a defence action of plants against chilling rather than a symptom caused by it.…”

“…Moreover, pretreatment of the sensitive variety with Spd inhibited the oxidative stress associated with CI as well as mitigating the general CI damage, while pretreatment of the resistant variety with an inhibitor of PA biosynthesis caused the appearance of CI and associated oxidative stress, so that the plants became CI-sensitive. 108 Kim et al 109 found an accumulation of Put when tomato plants were kept at low temperatures, and they posed the hypothesis that this PA could play a role as an inductor of CI tolerance. The authors based their assumption on the observation that plants treated with this PA experienced a reduction of around 30% in the increment of electrolyte leakage, the augmentation of which is a typical chilling-induced phenomenon, as we have already commented elsewhere.…”

Putrescine Is Involved in Arabidopsis Freezing Tolerance and Cold Acclimation by Regulating Abscisic Acid Levels in Response to Low Temperature

“…Close relationship between ABA and low-temperature responses is well documented in a great variety of plant species (Daie and Campbell, 1981;Chen et al, 1983;Anderson et al, 1994). An initial study of possible connection between ABA and polyamines has been carried out recently in cold-stressed tomato (Solanum lycopersicum; Kim et al, 2002), and a functional role for both ABA and polyamines in low-temperature response has been suggested. However, Kim et al proposed that ABA and polyamines act independently to control cold responses, which is in disagreement with our observations in Arabidopsis.…”

Alleviating harmful effects of chilling stress on rice seedling via application of spermidine as seed priming factor

“…As putrescine accumulation reduced the chilling injury in tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) (Kim et al, 2002), chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) (Nayyar, 2005) and maize (Cao et al, 2008) under chilling stress. Many studies demonstrated that genetic modification of the polyamine biosynthetic pathway is a useful tool to recognize the function of polyamines in plant responses to abiotic stresses in both crops and model plants (Igarashi and Kashiwagi, 2000;Childs et al, 2003;Kusano et al, 2008).…”