Nitric Oxide Controls Constitutive Freezing Tolerance in Arabidopsis by Attenuating the Levels of Osmoprotectants, Stress-Related Hormones and Anthocyanins

[EN] Plant tolerance to freezing temperatures is governed by endogenous constitutive components and environmental inducing factors. Nitric oxide (NO) is one of the endogenous components that participate in freezing tolerance regulation. A combined metabolomic and transcriptomic characterization of NO-deficient nia1,2noa1¿2 mutant plants suggests that NO acts attenuating the production and accumulation of osmoprotective and regulatory metabolites, such as sugars and polyamines, stress-related hormones, such as ABA and jasmonates, and antioxidants, such as anthocyanins and flavonoids. Accordingly, NO-deficient plants are constitutively more freezing tolerant than wild type plants.This work was supported by grants BIO2011-27526 and BIO2014-56067-P from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness and FEDER funds. 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