Accumulation of glycinebetaine during cold acclimation and freezing tolerance in leaves of winter and spring barley plants |
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Authors: | S KISHITANI K WATANABE S YASUDA K ARAKAWA T TAKABE |
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Institution: | Laboratory of Plant Breeding, Faculty of Agriculture, Tohoku University, Aoba, Sendai, 981 Japan;Research Institute for Bioresources, Okayama University, Kurashiki, 710 Japan;Research Institute for Biochemical Regulation, School of Agricultural Science, Nagoya University, Chikusa, Nagoya 464-01 Japan |
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Abstract: | A study was performed to examine whether or not betaine (glycinebetaine), a compatible solute, is accumulated in response to cold stress and is involved in mechanisms that protect plants from freezing injury. For this purpose, we used near-isogenic lines of barley, with each line differing only in a single gene for the spring type of growth habit; the various lines were produced by back-crosses to a recurrent cultivar of the winter type. The winter type of growth habit requires a low temperature for triggering of flower development (vernalization), whereas the spring type does not. Betaine was accumulated to five times the basal level over the course of 3 weeks at low temperature (5 °C) in the winter-type cultivar and in a spring-sh line having the sh gene for the spring-type growth habit, but the level was only doubled in the spring-Sh3 line, which carried the Sh3 gene for the spring-type growth habit. Among near-isogenic lines of the same cultivar, the levels of betaine accumulated in leaves at low temperature were well correlated with the percentages (on a dry weight basis) of green leaves that survived freezing injury (-5 °C). This observation indicates the possibility, separate from the recognized role of betaine in the response to salinity and/or drought, that betaine accumulates in response to cold stress and that the accumulation of betaine during cold acclimation is associated to some extent with freezing tolerance in leaves of barley plants. |
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Keywords: | barley betaine cold stress freezing tolerance Hordeum vulgare L |
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