Transcriptomic and physiological approaches to decipher cold stress mitigation exerted by brown-seaweed extract application in tomato

Matteo Borella; Ali Baghdadi; Giovanni Bertoldo; Maria Cristina Della Lucia; Claudia Chiodi; Silvia Celletti; Saptarathi Deb; Andrea Baglieri; Walter Zegada-Lizarazu; Elena Pagani; Andrea Monti; Francesca Mangione; Francesco Magro; Christian Hermans; Piergiorgio Stevanato; Serenella Nardi

doi:10.3389/fpls.2023.1232421

Transcriptomic and physiological approaches to decipher cold stress mitigation exerted by brown-seaweed extract application in tomato

Front Plant Sci. 2023 Sep 11:14:1232421. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2023.1232421. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Matteo Borella¹, Ali Baghdadi², Giovanni Bertoldo¹, Maria Cristina Della Lucia¹, Claudia Chiodi¹, Silvia Celletti³, Saptarathi Deb¹, Andrea Baglieri⁴, Walter Zegada-Lizarazu², Elena Pagani², Andrea Monti², Francesca Mangione⁵, Francesco Magro⁵, Christian Hermans⁶, Piergiorgio Stevanato¹, Serenella Nardi¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Agronomy, Food, Natural Resources, Animals and Environment (DAFNAE), University of Padua, Padua, Italy.
² Department of Agricultural and Food Sciences (DISTAL), University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy.
³ Department of Life Sciences (DSV), University of Siena, Siena, Italy.
⁴ Department of Agriculture Food Environment (Di3A), University of Catania, Catania, Italy.
⁵ Sipcam Italia S.p.A. Belonging Together with Sofbey SA to the Sipcam Oxon S.p.A. Group, Pero, Italy.
⁶ Crop Production and Biostimulation Laboratory (CPBL), Brussels Bioengineering School, Universitè libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium.

Abstract

Chilling temperatures represent a challenge for crop species originating from warm geographical areas. In this situation, biostimulants serve as an eco-friendly resource to mitigate cold stress in crops. Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) is an economically important vegetable crop, but quite sensitive to cold stress, which it encounters in both open field and greenhouse settings. In this study, the biostimulant effect of a brown-seaweed extract (BSE) has been evaluated in tomato exposed to low temperature. To assess the product effects, physiological and molecular characterizations were conducted. Under cold stress conditions, stomatal conductance, net photosynthesis, and yield were significantly (p ≤ 0.05) higher in BSE-treated plants compared to the untreated ones. A global transcriptomic survey after BSE application revealed the impact of the BSE treatment on genes leading to key responses to cold stress. This was highlighted by the significantly enriched GO categories relative to proline (GO:0006560), flavonoids (GO:0009812, GO:0009813), and chlorophyll (GO:0015994). Molecular data were integrated by biochemical analysis showing that the BSE treatment causes greater proline, polyphenols, flavonoids, tannins, and carotenoids contents.The study highlighted the role of antioxidant molecules to enhance tomato tolerance to low temperature mediated by BSE-based biostimulant.

Keywords: antioxidant molecules; biostimulant; brown seaweed extract; cold stress; plant physiology; tomato; transcriptome.

Grants and funding

The study was conducted within the Agritech National Research Center and received funding from the European Union Next-Generation EU (PIANO NAZIONALE DI RIPRESA E RESILIENZA (PNRR)—MISSIONE 4 COMPONENTE 2, INVESTIMENTO 1.4—D.D. 1032 17/06/2022, CN00000022). Our study represents a position paper related to: (1) Spoke 1 “Plant and animal genetic resources and adaptation to climate changes” and a baseline for the fulfillment of the milestones within task 1.2.4 titled “Profiling plant-microbial associations and modulating these interactions by biostimulant treatments to enhance the ability of plants to cope with environmental stressors”. (2) Spoke 7 “Integrated models for the development of marginal areas to promote multifunctional production systems enhancing agroecological and socio-economic sustainability” and a baseline for the fulfillment of the milestones within Task 7.1.2 titled “Strategies for development of the agricultural and forestry systems, plant and animal biodiversity enhancement also at landscape level in marginal areas”. This study was also funded by Veneto Region in the framework of the PSR 2014–2020 (Project: “Implementation and validation of innovative plant protection methods to increase the environmental sustainability of organic and sugar beet production”). Author MB was supported by Cariparo Foundation and PON Research &. Competitiveness MIUR-CUP C93H20000320007, respectively. CH is research associate from Fonds pour la Recherche Scientifique (F.R.S.-FNRS).