Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) plants are cold‐sensitive, and the fruit are susceptible to postharvest chilling injury when stored at low temperature. However, the mechanisms underlying cold stress responses in tomato are poorly understood. We demonstrate that SlGRAS4 , encoding a transcription factor induced by low temperature, promotes chilling tolerance in tomato leaves and fruit. Combined genome‐wide ChIP‐seq and RNA‐seq approaches identified among cold stress‐associated genes those being direct targets of SlGRAS4 and protein studies revealed that SlGRAS4 forms a homodimer to self‐activate its own promoter. SlGRAS4 can also directly bind tomato SlCBF promoters to activate their transcription without inducing any growth retardation. The study identifies the SlGRAS4‐regulon as a new cold response pathway conferring cold stress tolerance in tomato independently of the ICE1‐CBF pathway. This provides new track for breeding strategies aiming to improve chilling tolerance of cultivated tomatoes and to preserve sensory qualities of tomato fruit often deteriorated by storage at low temperatures.

中文翻译：

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SlGRAS4介导了一种新的调控途径，可促进番茄的耐冷性。

番茄（Solanum lycopersicum L.）植株对寒冷敏感，在低温下储存时，果实易受采后冷害的影响。然而，对番茄冷胁迫反应的潜在机制了解甚少。我们证明，SlGRAS4，编码由低温诱导的转录因子，可促进番茄叶片和果实的耐冷性。在冷应激相关基因中确定的组合全基因组ChIP-seq和RNA-seq方法是SlGRAS4的直接靶标和蛋白质研究表明，SlGRAS4形成同源二聚体以自我激活其自身的启动子。SlGRAS4也可以直接结合番茄SlCBF启动子激活其转录而不会引起任何生长迟缓。这项研究确定了SlGRAS4-regulon是一种新的冷应答途径，它独立于ICE1-CBF途径而赋予了番茄耐冷胁迫的能力。这为旨在提高栽培番茄的耐寒性并保持常因低温贮藏而恶化的番茄果实的感官品质的育种策略提供了新的途径。