A comparative analysis of the tomato MAPK cascade at the transcriptional and translational levels under low-temperature conditions.

Most components of the tomato MAPK cascade are regulated mainly at the translational level under cold stress, with mRNA levels remaining stable.

• Why it matters: Understanding the regulation of MAPK cascade components at both transcriptional and translational levels is crucial for comprehending plant cold responses, especially since previous studies focused only on mRNA.
• What they did: The study used polysomic profiling with parallel sequencing of total and polysomic RNA fractions to analyze mRNA differential expression and translational efficiency of all four MAPK groups and upstream kinases in tomato under cold stress and hardening.
• The result: Findings reveal that most cascade components are predominantly regulated at the translational level during cold stress, and candidate translational cold regulators for groups C and D were identified for the first time.