Molecular characterisation and expression analysis of a sHSP gene involved in heat shock treatment-induced chilling tolerance in highbush blueberry fruit

作者：Shi, Wenjun; Su, Shuchai; Li, Binbin; Yang, Junfeng; Gong, Z*******; Hou, Zhixia^*

来源：Journal of Horticultural Science & Biotechnology, 2017, 92(5): 455-464.

DOI：10.1080/14620316.2017.1304167

• Vaccinium corymbosum
• sHSP
• heat shock
• malondialdehyde
• anthocyanin

Plant small heat shock proteins (sHSPs) are abundant and diverse proteins involved in various stresses. In this study, a small heat shock protein gene (VcHSP17.7) encoding a 160-amino acid protein was isolated from the highbush blueberry (Vaccinium corymbosum L.). Sequence alignment and phylogenetic analysis indicated that the VcHSP17.7 is a member of the plant cytosolic class II sHSPs; this finding was supported by the subcellular localisation pattern of a VcHSP17.7-YFP fusion protein. Quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) showed that the VcHSP17.7 gene was expressed in all analysed tissues. Heat shock experiments were conducted using mature blueberry fruit. The anthocyanin content was lower in heat shock-treated fruit than in control fruit after 14days of storage at 2 degrees C. The malondialdehyde (MDA) content was lower in heat shock-treated fruit than in control fruit during subsequent low-temperature storage, which indicates that heat shock treatment may have alleviated chilling injury (CI) and enhanced the chilling tolerance of the blueberry fruit. Meanwhile, the expression of VcHSP17.7 in blueberry fruit was induced by heat shock treatment and gradually increased during subsequent low-temperature storage. These results suggest that VcHSP17.7 might be involved in the chilling tolerance of blueberry fruit caused by heat shock treatment.

• 出版日期2017
• 单位北京林业大学