Physiological and transcriptional analyses reveal the resistance mechanisms of kiwifruit (Actinidia chinensis) mutant with enhanced heat tolerance.

High temperature is an environmental stressor that severely threatens plant growth, development, and yield. In this study, we obtained a kiwifruit mutant (MT) of 'Hongyang' (WT) through Co-γ irradiation. The MT possessed different leaf morphology and displayed prominently elevated heat tolerance compared to the WT genotype.