The roles of call wall invertase inhibitor in regulating chilling tolerance in tomato

BACKGROUND: Hexoses are important metabolic signals that respond to abiotic and biotic stresses. Cold stress adversely affects plant growth and development, limiting productivity. The mechanism by which sugars regulate plant cold tolerance remains elusive. RESULTS: We examined the function of INVINH1, a cell wall invertase inhibitor, in tomato chilling tolerance. Cold stress suppressed the transcription of INVINH1 and increased that of cell wall invertase genes, Lin6 and Lin8 in tomato seedlings. Silencing INVINH1 expression in tomato increased cell wall invertase activity and enhanced chilling tolerance. Conversely, transgenic tomatoes over-expressing INVINH1 showed reduced cell wall invertase activity and were more sensitive to cold stress. Chilling stress increased glucose and fructose levels, and the hexoses content increased or decreased by silencing or overexpression INVINH1. Glucose applied in vitro masked the differences in chilling tolerance of tomato caused by the different expressions of INVINH1. The repression of INVINH1 or glucose applied in vitro regulated the expression of C-repeat binding factors (CBFs) genes. Transcript levels of NCED1, which encodes 9-cisepoxycarotenoid dioxygenase (NCED), a key enzyme in the biosynthesis of abscisic acid, were suppressed by INVINH1 after exposure to chilling stress. Meanwhile, application of ABA protected plant from chilling damage caused by the different expression of INVINH1. CONCLUSIONS: In tomato, INVINH1 plays an important role in chilling tolerance by adjusting the content of glucose and expression of CBFs. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s12870-017-1145-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.