Transcriptome and physiological analysis revealed core genes that promote glutathione metabolism in blue honeysuckle in response to freezing stress
摘要
Blue honeysuckle (Lonicera caerulea L.) is an important cash crop growing in freezing regions with high freezing tolerance. Previous studies have shown that reactive oxygen species (ROS) play an important role in plant defense against low-temperature stress, however, the regulatory mechanism of freezing resistance network formed during the long evolutionary evolution of blue honeysuckle is not clear. By treating blue honeysuckles at -4 °C for 0 h, 12 h, 24 h, and 48 h, it was found that the contents of ROS and malondialdehyde increased as well as the activities of antioxidant enzymes were enhanced. Analysis of the transcriptome data revealed a large number of differentially expressed genes enriched in the glutathione metabolic pathway. Among them, LcGST, LcGSS, LcGGT, LcGSR, LcGPX genes were differentially expressed and enriched in the glutathione synthesis pathway under low-temperature stress in blue honeysuckle. The transient overexpression of transcription factor LcERF107 demonstrated the transcriptional regulation of glutathione metabolism pathway genes and its ability to increase the activities of antioxidant enzymes such as CAT, APX, SOD and POD to increase the scavenging capacity of reactive oxygen species to improve the tolerance to low-temperature stress. In this study, we demonstrated that the transcription factor LcERF107 activated the expression of genes related to oxygen glutathione metabolism and significantly enhanced the activities of antioxidant enzymes, which led to the accumulation of ROS and reactive oxygen species in the body, thus improving the freezing tolerance of blue honeysuckles under low-temperature stress.