Gene Details:

• Gene ID: Solyc07g043580
• Gene Symbol: SlPIF4
• Gene Name: BHLH domain-containing protein
• Genome: Tomato Genome version SL4.0
• Species: Solanum lycopersicum

Functional Descriptions:

• Here, we report that SlPIF4 in tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) plays a pivotal role in regulating cold tolerance in anthers.
• Cas9-generated SlPIF4 knockout mutants showed enhanced cold tolerance in pollen due to reduced temperature sensitivity of the tapetum, while overexpressing SlPIF4 conferred pollen abortion by delaying tapetal programmed cell death (PCD).
• SlPIF4 directly interacts with SlDYT1, a direct upstream regulator of SlTDF1, both of which (SlDYT1 and SlTDF1) play important roles in regulating tapetum development and tapetal PCD.
• These findings suggest that SlPIF4 negatively regulates cold tolerance in anthers by directly interacting with the tapetal regulatory module in a temperature-dependent manner.
• SlPIF4 directly binds to the promoter sequence of SlGAI4 and activates its gene expression during cold stress.
• SlPIF4 directly activates the SlDELLA gene (GA-INSENSITIVE 4, SlGAI4) under cold stress, and SlGAI4 positively regulates cold tolerance.
• Additionally, SlGAI4 represses accumulation of the SlPIF4 protein, thus forming multiple coherent feed-forward loops. Our results reveal that plants integrate light and temperature signals to better adapt to cold stress through shared hormone pathways and transcriptional regulators, which may provide a comprehensive understanding of plant growth and survival in a changing environment.

Function-related keywords:

• temperature ,  growth ,  development ,  plant-development ,  pollen ,  stress ,  tolerance ,  tapetum ,  pollen-development ,  cold-tolerance ,  cold-stress ,  cold ,  stress-tolerance ,  cell-death ,  plant-growth ,  ga ,  transcriptional-regulator ,  tapetal ,  pcd ,  programmed-cell-death ,  tapetal-programmed-cell-death

Literature:

• PIF4 negatively modulates cold tolerance in tomato anthers via temperature-dependent regulation of tapetal cell death.   DOI:  10.1093/plcell/koab120 ;  PMID:  34009394
• Crosstalk of PIF4 and DELLA modulates CBF transcript and hormone homeostasis in cold response in tomato.   DOI:  10.1111/pbi.13272 ;  PMID:  31584235
• CALMODULIN6 negatively regulates cold tolerance by attenuating ICE1-dependent stress responses in tomato.   DOI:  10.1093/plphys/kiad452 ;  PMID:  37565524

Related News:

• The Plant Cell | 浙江大学卢钢教授团队合作揭示番茄SlPIF4调节花药耐寒新机制
• PBJ|浙江大学周艳虹课题组揭示光信号转录因子PIF4调控番茄低温抗性的分子机制
• 浙江大学周艳虹课题组揭示钙调蛋白CaM6在番茄低温抗性中的作用及机制

Gene Resources:

• NCBI ID: 101252303
• UniProt accessions: A0A3Q7H9E8

Sequences: