Identification of common and specific cold resistance pathways from cold tolerant and non-cold tolerant mango varieties

Jian-Hua Wang; Xiaoyan Feng; Muhammad Aleem Ashraf; Yufeng Li; Yu Kong; Qiuliang Cai; Shuli Xian; Huixiang Yin; Nai-Tong Yu

doi:10.7717/peerj.18431

Identification of common and specific cold resistance pathways from cold tolerant and non-cold tolerant mango varieties

PeerJ. 2024 Oct 30:12:e18431. doi: 10.7717/peerj.18431. eCollection 2024.

Authors

Jian-Hua Wang^#^{1

2}, Xiaoyan Feng^#², Muhammad Aleem Ashraf^{2

3}, Yufeng Li¹, Yu Kong¹, Qiuliang Cai¹, Shuli Xian², Huixiang Yin², Nai-Tong Yu^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Guangxi Key Laboratory of Biology for Mango, College of Agriculture and Food Engineering, Baise University, Baise, China.
² Institute of Tropical Bioscience and Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Sciences, Haikou, China.
³ Department of Biosciences and Technology, Emerson University, Multan, Pakistan.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Mango has frequently encountered severe climate and environmental challenges such as low temperatures, seriously affecting the sustainable development of the industry. In the study, physiological measurements showed that the activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and peroxidase (POD) were found to be higher in Jinhuang (JH) mango plants than those of Tainong (TN) mango plants under cold stress, indicating cold tolerant (JH) and non-cold tolerant (TN) mango varieties were firstly determined. Subsequently, transcriptomics showed 8,337 and 7,996 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were respectively identified in JH and TN mango varieties treated at 4 °C for 36 h, while more DEGs (10,683 and 10,723) were screened when treated at 4 °C for 72 h. Quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) of the selected DEGs confirmed their transcriptional levels displayed agreement to the transcriptome data. Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) enrichment analyses showed two primary cold resistant regulation pathways, photosynthesis-antenna proteins pathway and photosynthesis pathway, were both significant annotated in the two mango varieties, indicating share the common regulation mechanism response to cold stress. However, five specific cold resistant pathways, such as amino acid and carbohydrate metabolisms, were identified in JH mango variety with cold stress for longer duration, indicating the specific regulation pathways in the cold tolerant mango varieties. Furthermore, 43 ethylene-responsive transcription factors (ERFs) were significantly annotated in JH mango after cold-treated for 72 h comparing with the control group, and three of them ERF109-1, ERF017-1 and ERF017-2 were highly expressed, which may play important regulatory roles in plant cold resistance. These results provided insights into the primary and specific molecular mechanisms of different mango varieties resistance to chill.

Keywords: Abiotic stress; Cold resistance; Ethylene-responsive transcription factor; Mango; Omics.

MeSH terms

Cold Temperature*
Cold-Shock Response* / genetics
Gene Expression Profiling
Gene Expression Regulation, Plant*
Mangifera* / genetics
Photosynthesis / genetics
Plant Proteins / genetics
Plant Proteins / metabolism
Transcriptome

Substances

Plant Proteins

Grants and funding

This work was funded by the Open Project of Guangxi Key Laboratory of Biology for Mango (GKLBM02203), the Central Public-interest Scientific Institution Basal Research Fund (1630052023003), Guangxi First-class Disciplines (Agricultural Resources and Environment). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.