PpERF17 alleviates peach fruit postharvest chilling injury under elevated CO₂ by activating jasmonic acid and γ-aminobutyric acid biosynthesis

Abstract

Internal browning (IB) is a common chilling injury (CI) feature in peach fruit after prolonged cold storage. Our previous study demonstrated that low O₂ and elevated CO₂ (eCO₂) condition of modified atmosphere (MA) storage alleviated CI by facilitating the accumulation of jasmonic acids (JAs) and γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) in ‘Zhonghuashoutao’ (‘ZHST’) peach fruit. Here we show that 10% CO₂ alone can improve cold tolerance, with ethylene response factor 17 (PpERF17) identified as a pivotal transcription factor (TF) that promotes biosynthesis of JAs and GABA. Stable transformation of PpERF17 in tobacco resulted in reduced cold damage, attributed to decreased levels of hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) and malondialdehyde (MDA), as well as enhanced accumulation of JAs and GABA. Moreover, under eCO₂, PpMYC2.1, the master regulator of JA signaling, was found to activate transcription of 13S-lipoxygenase (Pp13S-LOX), allene oxide synthase (PpAOS), 12-oxophytodienoate reductase 3 (PpOPR3), and glutamate decarboxylase (PpGAD), while also inducing the expression of the upstream TF PpERF17, thereby establishing positive feedback loops upregulating JA and GABA biosynthesis. Finally, application of methyl jasmonate (MeJA) to fruit before shelf transfer from cold storage alleviated chilling injury development, due to increased accumulation of JAs and GABA as a result of raised expression of related biosynthetic genes. Collectively, our results suggest that eCO₂-induced PpERF17 enhances JAs and GABA accumulation while activating the JA signaling pathway. This contributes to a positive feedback loop mediated by PpMYC2.1, ultimately alleviating CI of peach fruit through the sustained accumulation of JAs and GABA.

Acknowledgements

We thank Prof. Andrew C. Allan (Plant & Food Research, NZ) for providing pGreenII 0800-LUC and pSAK277 vectors, as well as colleagues Ms. Rong Jin for her help on growing tobacco plants and Mr. Changqing Zhu for storage facility maintenance. This work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2022YFD2100103), Ningbo Key Research and Development Program (2022Z179), Zhejiang Provincial Cooperative Extension Project of Agricultural Key Technology (2022XTTGGP01), and the 111 Project (B17039).

Author contributions

C.X. and S.A. designed experiments; S.A., L.L., and M.L. performed experiments and analyzed the data; S.A. and C.X. wrote the manuscript; L.L., M.L., D.G., and K.C. revised the manuscript; C.X. obtained funding. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Data availability

All data is available within manuscript and its supporting materials.

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

Supplementary data

Supplementary data is available at Horticulture Research online.

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