| Abstract: | The effects of low temperature (5 °C and 12°C) and droughttreatments on leaf soluble protein content and free amino acidcontent have been investigated in four species, which were rankedaccording to chilling-sensitivity: pea (chill-resistant), mungbean (highly chill-sensitive), and tomato and french bean (intermediatechilling-sensitivity). Drought treatment caused a 30–40% decrease in proteinlevels, and in all but the mung bean, a 100–200% increasein free amino acid concentration. Four days chilling at 5°C,85% r.h. caused leaf water content to decrease by almost 50%in the mung bean, but by only approximately 6–7% in theother three species. During this treatment the leaf solubleprotein content decreased in all four species although the decreasewas greatest and most rapid in the mung bean, commencing with8 h of chilling (coinciding closely with the onset of waterloss), and decreasing by over 80% after 4 d. In the chill-sensitivespecies (but not in the pea) the decrease in protein contentwas accompanied by an increase in free amino acid content. However,on a mgg–1 dry wt. basis, this increase was insufficientto account for all the protein lost. When plants of each specieswere chilled at 5°C, 100% r.h., water loss was greatly reducedor prevented and there was no significant decrease in leaf solubleprotein. It is concluded that the protein decrease which occurredat 5°C, 85% r.h., was a response to water loss and not thedirect result of low temperature. However, chilling at 100%r.h. did cause an increase in free amino acid content of thechill-sensitive species, suggesting that this was a direct responseto low temperature. Although drought treatment caused a 6–20 fold increasein free proline content in the leaves of the four species examined,chilling (5°C) and chill-hardening (12°C) caused littlechange in free proline content, indicating that the accumulationof this ‘protective’ amino acid is unlikely to contributeto the effectiveness of the chill-hardening treatment. Key words: Low Temperature, Drought, Leaf soluble protein.content, Amino acids |
