biologia plantarum

Biologia plantarum 2016, 60:523-531 | DOI: 10.1007/s10535-016-0615-5

Combined effect of ethylene- and salicylic acid-signaling insensitive mutation on Arabidopsis response to low temperature

J. Y. Liu¹, Y. Zhu¹, L. L. Huang¹, X. Xu¹, G. Z. Li¹, L. Hao^1,*

¹ College of Chemistry and Life Sciences, Shenyang Normal University, Shenyang, P.R. China

The roles of ethylene (ET) or salicylic acid (SA) in plant response to low temperature (LT, 5 °C) have been implicated. However, the combined effect of ET- and SA-signaling on plant growth and metabolism under LT remains to be evaluated. In this study, we comparatively analyzed the response of Arabidopsis ethylene insensitive (ein) 2-1 (an ET insensitive mutant), nonexprressor of pathogenesis relative (npr)1-1 (an SA insensitive mutant) and double mutant ein2-1/npr1-1 plants to LT. The results show that a LT of 5 °C induced plant growth retardation to a less degree in ein2-1, an intermediate degree in npr1-1, but a much larger in ein2-1/npr1-1 compared to the wild-type (WT) plants. The LT susceptibility of the ein2-1/npr1-1 plants was correlated to a lower net photosynthetic rate and proline content, and a higher content of H₂O₂ and malondialdehyde and electrolyte leakage relative to the WT plants. Lower activities of superoxide dismutase, peroxidase, and catalase, as well as a lower glutathione content and a ratio of its reduced form to its oxidized form were also observed in the double mutant plants as compared with the WT plants. However, at normal conditions (23 °C), all the tested physiological and biochemical parameters were comparable between the ein2-1/npr1-1 and WT plants, and plant growth was even better in the double mutant than in the WT plants. On the contrary, most of the above-mentioned parameters were advantageous in the ein2-1 and npr1-1 plants over the WT plants under the LT conditions. These data suggest that a parallel function or physiological redundancy of nonexpressor of pathogenesis relative 1 and ethylene insensitive 2 existed in the Arabidopsis plant response to the LT. On the other hand, an interaction between ET- and SA-signaling occurred during this process.

Keywords: catalase; chilling; cross talk; lipid peroxidation; peroxidase; photosynthesis; superoxide dismutase

Subjects: ethylene; salicylic acid; mutant; chilling; catalase; lipid peroxidation; peroxidase; superoxide dismutase; net photosynthetic rate; proline; electrolyte leakage; glutathione; hydrogen peroxide

Species: Arabidopsis thaliana

Received: July 13, 2015; Revised: October 30, 2015; Accepted: November 20, 2015; Published: September 1, 2016Show citation