Regulatory mechanisms involved in cold acclimation response: a review

Abstract

Freezing temperatures are one of the environmental stresses with more impact in plant development in temperate regions. By means of cold acclimation, many plant species are able to increase their freezing tolerance in response to low-nonfreezing temperatures. In the last years, an important effort has been made to characterize the molecular mechanisms that control this adaptive process. Transcriptome analyses indicate that cold acclimation is mainly regulated by low temperatures through changes in gene expression. In this regard, it has been reported that 3.4% of Arabidopsis genes are regulated by low temperature, including 95 genes annotated as transcription factors. The control of coldinducible gene expression is very complex and involves many different signaling pathways that, in some cases, seem to share common intermediates. Interestingly, recent reports have shown that RNA processing and export, as well as post-translational modifications, including ubiquitylation and SUMOylation, also play important roles in regulating cold acclimation. Furthermore, histone modifications seem to be relevant in this regulation. In fact, histone acetylation and deacetylation are needed for correct activation of gene expression in response to low temperatures. All these data reveal that post-transcriptional mechanisms should be taken into consideration when analyzing the control of cold acclimation. Following, is a brief overview of the current understanding on the regulatory mechanisms that ensures the accurate development of this adaptive response.