VaEIN3.1‐VaERF057‐VaFBA1 Module Positively Regulates Cold Tolerance by Accumulating Soluble Sugar in Grapevine

Ethylene-responsive transcription factors (ERFs) were widely found to participate in cold response in plants. But the underlying regulatory mechanism of each cold-induced ERFs remains to be elucidated. Previously, we identified VaERF057 as a cold-induced gene in Vitis amurensis, a cold-hardy wild Vitis species. Here we found that overexpression of VaERF057 (VaERF057-OE) enhanced the freezing tolerance of V. amurensis roots. While VaERF057 knockdown tissues show decreased cold tolerance than control. DAP-seq combined with transcriptome data (VaERF057-OE roots) allowed to identify VaFBA1 (fructose-1,6-bisphosphate aldolase) as a downstream target of VaERF057. VaERF057 can bind to the VaFBA1 promoters and activate its expression. VaERF057-OE roots show increased expression of VaFBA1 and high content of soluble sugar than the control, whereas VaERF057 knockdown tissues showed opposite changes. Results from OE and knockdown material also support the role of VaFBA1 in regulating soluble sugar content and cold tolerance in grapevines. Furthermore, cold-induced expression of VaERF057 was found to be regulated by ethylene-insensitive3-1 (VaEIN3.1). Overexpression of VaEIN3.1 enhanced the transcription of VaERF057 and VaFBA1, the content of soluble sugar and cold tolerance in grapevine. VaEIN3.1 knockdown tissues show opposite trends when compared to VaEIN3.1-OE lines. Together, these results suggested a positive contribution of VaEIN3.1-VaERF057-VaFBA1 module in response to cold stress in grapevine.