title: Cold priming drives the sub-cellular antioxidant systems to protect photosynthetic electron transport against subsequent low temperature stress in winter wheat.
abstract: Low temperature seriously depresses the growth of wheat through inhibition of photosynthesis, while earlier cold priming may enhance the tolerance of plants to subsequent low temperature stress. Here, winter wheat plants were firstly cold primed (5.2 °C lower temperature than the ambient temperature, viz., 10.0 °C) at the Zadoks growth stage 28 (i.e. re-greening stage, starting on 20th of March) for 7 d, and after 14 d of recovery the plants were subsequently subjected to a 5 d low temperature stress (8.4 °C lower than the ambient temperature, viz., 14.1 °C) at the Zadoks growth stage 31 (i.e. jointing stage, starting on 8th April). Compared to the non-primed plants, the cold-primed plants possessed more effective oxygen scavenging systems in chloroplasts and mitochondria as exemplified by the increased activities of SOD, APX and CAT, resulting in a better maintenance in homeostasis of ROS production. The trapped energy flux (TRO/CSO) and electron transport (ETO/CSO) in the photosynthetic apparatus were found functioning well in the cold-primed plants leading to higher photosynthetic rate during the subsequent low temperature stress. Collectively, the results indicate that cold priming activated the sub-cellular antioxidant systems, depressing the oxidative burst in photosynthetic apparatus, hereby enhanced the tolerance to subsequent low temperature stress in winter wheat plants.
authors.affiliation: National Engineering and Technology Center for Information Agriculture/Key Laboratory of Crop Physiology and Ecology in Southern China, Ministry of Agriculture, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China; University of Copenhagen, Faculty of Science, Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Højbakkegaard Allé 13, DK-2630 Taastrup, Denmark.
authors.forename: Xiangnan
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: National Engineering and Technology Center for Information Agriculture/Key Laboratory of Crop Physiology and Ecology in Southern China, Ministry of Agriculture, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China. Electronic address: caijian@njau.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Jian
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Cai
authors.affiliation: University of Copenhagen, Faculty of Science, Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Højbakkegaard Allé 13, DK-2630 Taastrup, Denmark.
authors.forename: Fulai
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: National Engineering and Technology Center for Information Agriculture/Key Laboratory of Crop Physiology and Ecology in Southern China, Ministry of Agriculture, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China.
authors.forename: Tingbo
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Dai
authors.affiliation: National Engineering and Technology Center for Information Agriculture/Key Laboratory of Crop Physiology and Ecology in Southern China, Ministry of Agriculture, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China.
authors.forename: Weixing
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Cao
authors.affiliation: National Engineering and Technology Center for Information Agriculture/Key Laboratory of Crop Physiology and Ecology in Southern China, Ministry of Agriculture, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China. Electronic address: jiangd@njau.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Dong
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Jiang
mesh_terms: D000064:Acclimatization / Q000502:physiology; D000975:Antioxidants / Q000378:metabolism*; D003080:Cold Temperature; D004579:Electron Transport / Q000502:physiology; D018506:Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; D010788:Photosynthesis / Q000502:physiology; D014908:Triticum / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D000975:Antioxidants
keywords: Antioxidant defense; Chloroplast; Cold priming; Electron transport; Mitochondria; Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.)