Investigation of Atsark mutant and WT (Col) plants under cold stress

The senescence can be induced by abiotic stresses influencing plant growth and productivity. Cold is one of the concerns for crops and cold-related alterations lead to the early onset of senescence. It is shown that the senescence-associated receptor-like kinase is a positive regulator of natural senescence, however, its involvement in stress-induced senescence has not been studied yet. Here, the phenotypic analysis was performed in Atsark mutant and wild type (WT) Arabidopsis thaliana model plants, which were subjected to cold stress for 5 days. It was observed that the Atsark mutant is a more resistive phenotype and did not show signs of senescence compared to WT under cold stress. Moreover, the mass-spectrometry analysis revealed the increase of proteins such as UGP2, MSD1, SAHH, CHS, At1g23740, GLN2, ENO2, PGH1, RBG7, RBCL, At1g32060, GSTU20, CTIMC in WT leaves compared to Atsark mutant after cold application. Additionally, online microarray analysis (genevestigator.com) of the above genes showed that the transcript profile of some of these proteins, CHS, RBCL, and RBG7 are cold stress-inducible. The outcomes indicate that the SARK-related disbalance in proteins related to defense, regulation mechanisms, sucrose metabolism, and glycolysis may be involved in the cold-tolerant response of plants.