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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Plant Sci.
Sec. Plant Abiotic Stress
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpls.2024.1501774

Integrated physiological and transcriptomic data revealed the cold-resistant mechanisms in reproductive organs of the 'Jinguang' pear cultivar

Provisionally accepted
Mengying Sun Mengying Sun 1Shun Lin Shun Lin 1Weizhen Guo Weizhen Guo 2Min Jiang Min Jiang 1Ying Li Ying Li 2Jun Zhang Jun Zhang 1*Jingxian Zhao Jingxian Zhao 2Minsheng Yang Minsheng Yang 1
  • 1 Hebei Agricultural University, Baoding, China
  • 2 Hebei Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences (HAAFS), Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    The Pyrus spp. (pears) are crucial for the fruit industry; however, low spring temperatures can cause frost damage to their reproductive organs, which poses challenges to the final yields. In this study, we evaluated the response of the flowers and young fruits of the 'Jinguang' pear cultivar to low temperatures from integrated phenotypic, physiological, and molecular approaches. We found that the flowers were less sensitive to low temperatures than the young fruits, of which the over-cooling points of them were -5.6 °C and -5.0 °C, respectively. Transcriptomic data showed that the differentially expressed genes from flowers and young fruits compared to the control conditions were primarily involved in the biosynthesis of flavonoids, phenylalanine, and tyrosine. Further weighted gene co-expression network analysis uncovered the core transcription factors that may be potentially involved in the pear cold resistance, including MYB20, WRKY53, WRKY30, etc. Our findings provide valuable insights and candidate gene resources for further exploration of the molecular mechanisms underlying cold resistance in pear trees.

    Keywords: Low-temperature stress, Pear, Flower organs, Young fruit, Flavonoid biosynthesis

    Received: 25 Sep 2024; Accepted: 23 Dec 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Sun, Lin, Guo, Jiang, Li, Zhang, Zhao and Yang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Jun Zhang, Hebei Agricultural University, Baoding, China

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