Salicylic Acid Improves the Constitutive Freezing Tolerance of Potato as Revealed by Transcriptomics and Metabolomics Analyses

Freezing severely impacts potato production. Deciphering the pathways and metabolites that regulate the freezing tolerance of potato is useful in cultivation and breeding for hardiness. In the present study, Solanum acaule was identified to be more freezing tolerant than S. tuberosum. Furthermore, the two genotypes before/after exposure to 4 °C for 7 d with additional −1 °C for 12 h were analysed by RNA-seq and metabolomics, and the results were compared with the previous −1 °C for 12 h. The results showed that S. acaule activated numerous genes that differed from those of S. tuberosum. Among the genes, five pathways, such as the hormone signalling pathway, which includes salicylic acid, were enriched. Further metabolomics analysis showed that the content of salicylic acid was improved in S. acaule in response to −1 °C for 12 h. Moreover, exogenous application of 0.1 mM salicylic acid to potato was shown to improve constitutive freezing tolerance and increase the expression of HSFC1. Following transcriptome and metabolome analyses, it was documented that the content of SA that increased in freezing-tolerant S. acaule after exposure to cold condition, associated with the SA signalling pathway, enhanced potato freezing tolerance, probably through HSFC1.