Exogenous Melatonin Improves Cold Tolerance of Strawberry (<i>Fragaria × ananassa</i> Duch.) through Modulation of DREB/CBF-COR Pathway and Antioxidant Defense System
Faisal Hayat,
Zixun Sun,
Zhaojun Ni,
Shahid Iqbal,
Wuyi Xu,
Zhihong Gao,
Yushan Qiao,
Muhammad Aammar Tufail,
Mohammad Shah Jahan,
Ummara Khan,
Chunyan Wan,
Xianbin Gu
Affiliations
Faisal Hayat
Laboratory of Fruit Tree Biotechnology, College of Horticulture, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China
Zixun Sun
Laboratory of Fruit Tree Biotechnology, College of Horticulture, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China
Zhaojun Ni
Laboratory of Fruit Tree Biotechnology, College of Horticulture, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China
Shahid Iqbal
Laboratory of Fruit Tree Biotechnology, College of Horticulture, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China
Wuyi Xu
Laboratory of Fruit Tree Biotechnology, College of Horticulture, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China
Zhihong Gao
Laboratory of Fruit Tree Biotechnology, College of Horticulture, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China
Yushan Qiao
Laboratory of Fruit Tree Biotechnology, College of Horticulture, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China
Muhammad Aammar Tufail
Institute for General Microbiology, Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel Am Botanischen Garten 1-9, 24118 Kiel, Germany
Mohammad Shah Jahan
Department of Horticulture, Faculty of Agriculture, Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka 1207, Bangladesh
Ummara Khan
Key Laboratory of Food Processing and Quality Control, College of Food Science and Technology, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China
Chunyan Wan
Zhenjiang Agricultural Science Research Institute, Jurong 212400, China
Xianbin Gu
Zhejiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Hangzhou 310021, China
The strawberry (Fragaria × ananassa Duch.) is an important fruit crop cultivated worldwide for its unique taste and nutritional properties. One of the major risks associated with strawberry production is cold damage. Recently, melatonin has emerged as a multifunctional signaling molecule that influences plant growth and development and reduces adverse consequences of cold stress. The present study was conducted to investigate the defensive role of melatonin and its potential interrelation with abscisic acid (ABA) in strawberry plants under cold stress. The results demonstrate that melatonin application conferred improved cold tolerance on strawberry seedlings by reducing malondialdehyde and hydrogen peroxide contents under cold stress. Conversely, pretreatment of strawberry plants with 100 μM melatonin increased soluble sugar contents and different antioxidant enzyme activities (ascorbate peroxidase, catalase, and peroxidase) and non-enzymatic antioxidant (ascorbate and glutathione) activities under cold stress. Furthermore, exogenous melatonin treatment stimulated the expression of the DREB/CBF—COR pathways’ downstream genes. Interestingly, ABA treatment did not change the expression of the DREB/CBF—COR pathway. These findings imply that the DREB/CBF-COR pathway confers cold tolerance on strawberry seedlings through exogenous melatonin application. Taken together, our results reveal that melatonin (100 μM) pretreatment protects strawberry plants from the damages induced by cold stress through enhanced antioxidant defense potential and modulating the DREB/CBF—COR pathway.
