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The Effects of Salinity on the Anatomy and Gene Expression Patterns in Leaflets of Tomato cv. Micro-Tom.

ABSTRACT: Salinity is a form of abiotic stress that impacts growth and development in several economically relevant crops and is a top-ranking threat to agriculture, considering the average rise in the sea level caused by global warming. Tomato is moderately sensitive to salinity and shows adaptive mechanisms to this abiotic stressor. A case study on the dwarf tomato model Micro-Tom is here presented in which the response to salt stress (NaCl 200 mM) was investigated to shed light on the changes occurring at the expression level in genes involved in cell wall-related processes, phenylpropanoid pathway, stress response, volatiles' emission and secondary metabolites' production. In particular, the response was analyzed by sampling older/younger leaflets positioned at different stem heights (top and bottom of the stem) and locations along the rachis (terminal and lateral) with the goal of identifying the most responsive one(s). Tomato plants cv. Micro-Tom responded to increasing concentrations of NaCl (0-100-200-400 mM) by reducing the leaf biomass, stem diameter and height. Microscopy revealed stronger effects on leaves sampled at the bottom and the expression analysis identified clusters of genes expressed preferentially in older or younger leaflets. Stress-related genes displayed a stronger induction in lateral leaflets sampled at the bottom. In conclusion, in tomato cv. Micro-Tom subjected to salt stress, the bottom leaflets showed stronger stress signs and response, while top leaflets were less impacted by the abiotic stressor and had an increased expression of cell wall-related genes involved in expansion.

SUBMITTER: Hoffmann J

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8392013 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:BackgroundPhytochromes are plant photoreceptors that have long been associated with photomorphogenesis in plants; however, more recently, their crucial role in the regulation of variety of abiotic stresses has been explored. Chilling stress is one of the abiotic factors that severely affect growth, development, and productivity of crops. In the present work, we have analyzed and compared physiological, biochemical, and molecular responses in two contrasting phytochrome mutants of tomato, namely aurea (aur) and high pigment1 (hp1), along with wild-type cultivar Micro-Tom (MT) under chilling stress. In tomato, aur is phytochrome-deficient mutant while hp1 is a phytochrome-sensitive mutant. The genotype-specific physiological, biochemical, and molecular responses under chilling stress in tomato mutants strongly validated phytochrome-mediated regulation of abiotic stress.ResultsHere, we demonstrate that phytochrome-sensitive mutant hp1 show improved performance compared to phytochrome-deficient mutant aur and wild-type MT plants under chilling stress. Interestingly, we noticed significant increase in several photosynthetic-related parameters in hp1 under chilling stress that include photosynthetic rate, stomatal conductance, stomatal aperture, transpiration rate, chlorophyll a and carotenoids. Whereas most parameters were negatively affected in aur and MT except a slight increase in carotenoids in MT plants under chilling stress. Further, we found that PSII quantum efficiency (Fv/Fm), PSII operating efficiency (Fq'/Fm'), and non-photochemical quenching (NPQ) were all positively regulated in hp1, which demonstrate enhanced photosynthetic performance of hp1 under stress. On the other hand, Fv/Fm and Fq'/Fm' were decreased significantly in aur and wild-type plants. In addition, NPQ was not affected in MT but declined in aur mutant after chilling stress. Noticeably, the transcript analysis show that PHY genes which were previously reported to act as molecular switches in response to several abiotic stresses were mainly induced in hp1 and repressed in aur and MT in response to stress. As expected, we also found reduced levels of malondialdehyde (MDA), enhanced activities of antioxidant enzymes, and higher accumulation of protecting osmolytes (soluble sugars, proline, glycine betaine) which further elaborate the underlying tolerance mechanism of hp1 genotype under chilling stress.ConclusionOur findings clearly demonstrate that phytochrome-sensitive and phytochrome-deficient tomato mutants respond differently under chilling stress thereby regulating physiological, biochemical, and molecular responses and thus establish a strong link between phytochromes and their role in stress tolerance.

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The Effects of Salinity on the Anatomy and Gene Expression Patterns in Leaflets of Tomato cv. Micro-Tom.

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