Molecular Cold Responses for Two Strawberry Cultivars: Comparison of Proteomic and Microarray Analysis

Abstract

A crucial consideration for strawberry producers in Norway and other northern countries is winter freezing damage. A long-term goal of the Norwegian strawberry breeding is to increase winter hardiness and to improve fruit quality. Due to the complexity involved in regulating and enhancing freezing tolerance, progress in the improvement of cultivars using traditional screening methods has had limited success. Thus, the development of molecular markers for freezing hardiness would facilitate the selection for this trait. We have developed and adopted state-of-art molecular tools to investigate cold response in strawberry plants during the acclimation phase resulting in the identification of a large number of genes, proteins, and distinct metabolites that correspond to cold/freezing tolerance in strawberry. To identify proteins responsible for freezing tolerance in strawberry we have examined alterations in protein levels in strawberry cultivars that differ in cold tolerance following a 2 day cold exposure, using a shotgun LC-MS/MS approach and a microarray approach. Proteomic analysis suggested potential biomarkers that showed significant changes in the cultivated strawberry in early responses to cold. While it was difficult to directly correlate the identified protein with their corresponding transcript, by factoring transcript abundances, one could address whether any transcript change could account for changes in protein levels. In many cases a plausible correlation could be established. The knowledge attained from these endeavors is expected to expedite breeding of strawberries to achieve freezing tolerant lines and provide an integrative understanding of the molecular pathways that underlie this characteristic.

Label-free quantitative proteomics to investigate the response of strawberry fruit after controlled ozone treatment

“…11 A large number of protein molecular markers associated with tolerance was detected using a two-dimensional gel electrophoresis (2-DE) approach when strawberry was subjected to cold stress. 12 Using a label-free quantitative proteomics method, 73 proteins related to energy metabolism and protein folding were detected in strawberries upon storage under low temperature and modied atmosphere. 8 However, there have been few studies regarding proteomic changes related to ozone treatment for fruit storage (kiwifruit 13 and tomato 14 ).…”

Integrative “omic” analysis reveals distinctive cold responses in leaves and roots of strawberry, Fragaria × ananassa ‘Korona’

“…Cold-regulated transcripts have been identified in F. ananassa leaves ( Ndong et al, 1997 ; Yubero-Serrano et al, 2003 ; Koehler et al, 2012a ). Further, levels of cold-regulated proteins in crowns of several cultivars of F. ananassa varying in cold tolerance have been evaluated ( Koehler et al, 2012b ).…”