Transcriptome Analysis Reveals That Ascorbic Acid Treatment Enhances the Cold Tolerance of Tea Plants through Cell Wall Remodeling

作者：Qianyuan Fu, Hongli Cao, Lu Wang, Lei Lei, Taimei Di, Yufan Ye, Changqing Ding, Nana Li, Xinyuan Hao, Jianming Zeng, Yajun Yang, Xinchao Wang, Meng Ye, Jianyan Huang · 发表于：International Journal of Molecular Sciences · 年份：2023 · DOI：10.3390/ijms241210059 · 被引用次数：20 · 研究领域：Plant Stress Responses and Tolerance、Plant responses to water stress、Plant responses to elevated CO2

Cold stress is a major environmental factor that adversely affects the growth and productivity of tea plants. Upon cold stress, tea plants accumulate multiple metabolites, including ascorbic acid. However, the role of ascorbic acid in the cold stress response of tea plants is not well understood. Here, we report that exogenous ascorbic acid treatment improves the cold tolerance of tea plants. We show that ascorbic acid treatment reduces lipid peroxidation and increases the Fv/Fm of tea plants under cold stress. Transcriptome analysis indicates that ascorbic acid treatment down-regulates the expression of ascorbic acid biosynthesis genes and ROS-scavenging-related genes, while modulating the expression of cell wall remodeling-related genes. Our findings suggest that ascorbic acid treatment negatively regulates the ROS-scavenging system to maintain ROS homeostasis in the cold stress response of tea plants and that ascorbic acid's protective role in minimizing the harmful effects of cold stress on tea plants may occur through cell wall remodeling. Ascorbic acid can be used as a potential agent to increase the cold tolerance of tea plants with no pesticide residual concerns in tea.