AtCBF1 Overexpression Confers Tolerance to High Light Conditions at Warm Temperatures in Potato Plants

STORANI L; HERNANDO CE; STANELONI RJ; PLOSCHUK EL; RUGNONE ML; STRIKER GG; CASAL JJ; CHERNOMORETZ A; YANOVSKY MJ

AMERICAN JOURNAL OF POTATO RESEARCH

SPRINGER

Lugar: Berlin; Año: 2015 vol. 92 p. 619 - 635

1099-209X

We characterized transcriptional responses of potato plants to multiple abiotic stresses and used this information to identify potential mechanisms through which over-expression of the stress related transcription factor CBF1 from Arabidopsis thaliana (AtCBF1) confers multiple stress tolerance. Most transcriptional changes were specific to each condition, but genes involved in phenyl-propanoid biosynthesis were affected by all abiotic stresses evaluated. Interestingly, over-expression of AtCBF1 in potato plants not only conferred tolerance to low temperatures, as previously reported, but also to high-light conditions at 22 °C, suggesting that it confers multiple stress tolerance by enhancing the ability of plants to cope with an excess of radiant energy. Finally, we found that transcriptional changes triggered by abiotic stress were much larger than those resulting from AtCBF1 over-expression in potato, revealing that overexpression of an heterologous transcription factor causes minor alterations in the plant transcriptome in comparison to transcriptional changes triggered by abiotic stresses.