Data from: Brassinosteroids act as a positive regulator of NBR1-dependent selective autophagy in response to chilling stress in tomato

Autophagy is a highly conserved and regulated catabolic process involved
in the degradation of protein aggregates, and it plays critical roles in
eukaryotes. In plants, autophagy has been well studied in stress
responses. Although multiple molecular processes can induce or suppress
autophagy, the mechanism of its regulation by phytohormones is poorly
understood. Brassinosteroids (BRs) are steroid phytohormones that play
crucial roles in plant response to stresses. In present study, we
investigate the role of BRs in NBR1-dependent selective autophagy in
response to chilling stress in tomato. BRs and their signaling element
BZR1 can induce autophagy and protein accumulation of its selective
receptor NBR1 in tomato under chilling stress. Cold increased the
stability of BZR1, which was promoted by BRs. Cold- and BR-induced BZR1
stability activated the transcription of several ATGs and NBR1 genes by
directly binding to the promoters of those genes, which resulted in the
formation of selective autophagy. Furthermore, silencing of these ATGs or
NBR1 genes resulted in the decreased accumulation of several functional
proteins and the increased accumulation of ubiquitinated proteins,
subsequently compromised BR-induced cold tolerance. These results strongly
suggest that BRs regulate NBR1-dependent selective autophagy by
BZR1-dependent manner in response to chilling stress in tomato.