Ethylene attenuates chilling injury of banana fruit via the MabHLH060/183 module in controlling phosphatidic acid formation genes

Chilling injury (CI) of banana represents a serious problem constraining postharvest preservation in the industry. Application of ethylene was found to efficiently attenuate CI of banana, however, the mechanism of which re-mains to be investigated. Here, we found that application of ethrel could ameliorate the CI of banana, as evi-denced by lower CI index, electrolytic leakage and malondialdehyde content. Meanwhile, expression of phosphatidic acid (PA) formation genes MaPLD delta 1, MaPLD delta 5 and MaDGK2, as well as two transcriptional reg-ulators MabHLH060 and MabHLH183 was significantly increased with the progression of CI, but decreased under ethrel treatment. MabHLH060 and MabHLH183 were shown to locate in nucleus and have transactivation ability. Importantly, these two transcriptional regulators MabHLH060/183 recognized the E-box elements in the promoters of MaPLD delta 1, MaPLD delta 5 and MaDGK2, and promoted their transcription. Together, these findings suggest that ethylene-alleviated CI of banana may involve the MabHLH060/183 module in modulating the expression of PA formation genes.

Automated summary

Ethylene application can alleviate chilling injury of banana by modulating the expression of phosphatidic acid formation genes through the transcriptional regulators MabHLH060/183.