Hydrogen Sulfide Alleviates Oxidative Damage under Chilling Stress through Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinase in Tomato

Abstract

Tomato is the vegetable with the largest greenhouse area in China, and low temperature is one of the main factors affecting tomato growth, yield, and quality. Hydrogen sulfide (H₂S) plays an important role in regulating plant chilling tolerance, but its downstream cascade reaction and mechanism remain unclear. Mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPK/MPKs) are closely related to a variety of signaling substances in stress signal transmission. However, whether H₂S is related to the MPK cascade pathway in response to low-temperature stress is rarely reported. In this study, NaHS treatment significantly decreased the electrolyte leakage (EL), superoxide anion (O₂^-) production rate, and hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) content of seedlings at low temperatures. In addition, the activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD), peroxidase (POD), and catalase (CAT) were obviously increased; and the photochemical efficiency of PSII (Fv/Fm) was enhanced with treatment with NaHS, indicating that NaHS improved the seedlings' cold tolerance by alleviating the degree of membrane lipid peroxidation and oxidative damage. However, H₂S scavenger hypotaurine (HT) treatment showed the opposite effect. We found that H₂S content, L-cysteine desulfhydrase (LCD) activity, and mRNA expression were increased by chilling stress but reduced by MPK inhibitor PD98059; PD98059 reversed the alleviating effect of H₂S via increasing the EL and H₂O₂ contents. The expression levels of <i>MPK1</i>-<i>MPK7</i> at low temperatures showed that <i>SlMPK4</i> was significantly induced by exogenous NaHS and showed a trend of first increasing and then decreasing, while the expression level of <i>SlMPK4</i> in HT-treated seedlings was lower than that of the control. After <i>SlMPK4</i> was silenced by virus-induced gene silencing, the H₂S-induced upregulation of C-repeat-Binding Factor (CBF1), inducer of CBF expression 1 (ICE1), respiratory burst oxidase homologs (RBOH1, RBOH2) at low temperatures disappeared, and tomato cold tolerance decreased. In conclusion, H₂S improves the cold tolerance of tomato plants by increasing the activity of antioxidant enzymes and reducing reactive oxygen species (ROS) accumulation and membrane lipid peroxidation. MPK4 may act as a downstream signaling molecule in this process.