Transcriptome Analysis Reveals Key Cold-Stress-Responsive Genes in Winter Rapeseed (Brassica rapa L.)

Abstract

Low ambient air temperature limits the growth and selection of crops in cold regions, and cold tolerance is a survival strategy for overwintering plants in cold winters. Studies of differences in transcriptional levels of winter rapeseed (Brassica rapa L.) under cold stress can improve our understanding of transcript-mediated cold stress responses. In this study, two winter rapeseed varieties, Longyou-7 (cold-tolerant) and Lenox (cold-sensitive), were used to reveal morphological, physiological, and transcriptome levels after 24 h of cold stress, and 24 h at room temperature, to identify the mechanism of tolerance to cold stress. Compared to Lenox, Longyou-7 has a shorter growth period and greater belowground mass, and exhibits stronger physiological activity after cold stress. Subsequently, more complete genomic annotation was obtained by sequencing. A total of 10,251 and 10,972 differentially expressed genes (DEG) were identified in Longyou-7 and Lenox, respectively. Six terms closely related to cold stress were found by the Gene Ontology (GO) function annotation. Some of these terms had greater upregulated expression in Longyou-7, and the expression of these genes was verified by qRT-PCR. Most of these DEGs are involved in phenylpropanoid biosynthesis, plant hormone signal transduction, ribosome biogenesis, MAPK signaling pathway, basal transcription factors, and photosynthesis. Analysis of the genes involved in the peroxisome pathway revealed that Longyou-7 and Lenox may have different metabolic patterns. Some transcription factors may play an important role in winter rapeseed tolerance to cold stress, and Longyou-7 is slightly slower than Lenox. Our results provide a transcriptome database and candidate genes for further study of winter rapeseed cold stress.

Physiological and Biochemical Mechanisms and Cytology of Cold Tolerance in Brassica napus

“…This result showed that ROS induced lipid peroxidation and the level of injury depended on the cold-resistant properties of the cultivars. Our findings are in agreement with previous study that cold-tolerant species, such as Santalum album (Zhang et al, 2017), Vitis amurensis (Xu et al, 2014), Solanum lycopersicum (Chen et al, 2015), B. rape (Ma et al, 2019), and B. napus (Pu et al, 2019a) have strong protective enzyme activity and high content of soluble regulators which can reduce ROS production. The present physiochemical study confirmed that cultivar 16NTS309 had significantly higher cold resistance than cultivar Tianyou2238.…”

“…ROS signals are known to form signatures during the biotic and abiotic stress responses of plants. During normal metabolic processes, plant cells produce a variety of ROS, including the O 2 − , H 2 O 2 and hydroxyl radicals ( O’brien et al., 2012 ) and there is a quick release of ROS, following cold stress, which is an important signature not only for the local immune response but also for cell-to-cell communication ( Miller et al., 2009 ; Miller et al., 2010 ; Ma et al., 2019 ; Qi et al,2020 ).…”

“…Our research group studied the feasibility of expanding winter rapeseed northwards into cold regions in northwestern China and bred new B. napus 16NTS309 having a strong cold tolerance, which could over winter in the 36°73′N area at an altitude of 1,517 m. These are the essential B. napus germplasm resources having strong cold tolerance levels used for breeding in northern China. Although the physiology, proteomics, and micRNA of cold tolerance of winter B. napus and B.rape have been studied (Ma et al, 2019;Pu et al, 2019b), but the cellular mechanisms underlying cold tolerance and resistance (Møller and Sweetlove, 2010) remain largely unknown. In this study, we address several key questions.…”

An Advanced Lipid Metabolism System Revealed by Transcriptomic and Lipidomic Analyses Plays a Central Role in Peanut Cold Tolerance

“…Nowadays, thousands of genes and many signaling pathways have been identified in numerous plants during cold stress ( Winfield et al, 2010 ), however, a clear and comprehensive relationship between lipid metabolism and cold tolerance has not been established, especially in peanuts. Recent studies suggest that plant hormone signal transduction, photosynthesis, plant-pathogen interaction, and circadian rhythms pathways were essential all play a role in response to cold stress ( Li et al, 2019 ; Ma et al, 2019 ; Xin et al, 2019 ). In this study, these responses also were significantly enriched in two peanut cultivars under cold stress.…”

Transcriptomic Profiling of Young Cotyledons Response to Chilling Stress in Two Contrasting Cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) Genotypes at the Seedling Stage

“…These results indicate that the early cold response of H559 does not perform as well as that of YM21. Many previous studies on plant cold tolerance have found that genes related to plant hormone signal transduction and protein kinases are induced by cold stress [56][57][58]. KEGG pathway analysis found that plant hormone signal transduction and MAPK signal pathways were significantly enriched in both tolerant and sensitive varieties at 24 h of cold stress, suggesting that they played important roles in regulating cold tolerance of cotton cotyledons.…”