SlMYB41 induced by exogenous Brassinosteroids negatively regulates the cold resistance of tomato

Brassinosteroids (BRs) regulate plant development and response to stress. The study has shown that the exogenous application of BRs can increase plant tolerance to cold. However, how exogenous BRs affect the cold resistance of tomato requires further investigation. Our results showed that exogenous application 24-epibrassinolide (BRs) increased BRs contents and cold resistance of tomato plants. RNA-Seq results showed that the expression of the majority genes encoding proteins in photosystems I, II and photosynthetic characteristics were downregulated, and that the degree of downregulation in application BRs plants was weaker than that in MT plants.Chilling stress also regulated the expression levels of 60 transcription factors (TFs). The expression of the majority genes of 34 downregulation and 26 upregulation TFs in application BRs plants was lower than that in MT plants. RNA-Seq results further showed that the expression of SlMYB41 could be induced by BRs.