Urinary output of water-soluble vitamins has been used as an indices for vitamin nutrition. It has been pointed out that the coefficient variance of these values is high, especially for niacin catabolites. Thus, we investigated what kinds of stress affect the catabolism using female subjects. The effects of cold exposure (as a typical physical stress), calculation exercise (a typical mental str...

Prenatal cold stress is one of the earliest factors affecting mammalian health, and is associated with neonatal growth retardation and immune dysfunction, thus increasing disease susceptibility. The mechanisms underlying these observations remain unclear; hence, the objective of this study was to elucidate placental responses to cold stress. 60 maternal rats were randomly allocated to either st...

The pineapple (Ananas comosus) is cold sensitive. Most cultivars are injured during winter periods, especially in sub-tropical regions. There is a lack of molecular information on the pineapple's response to cold stress. In this study, high-throughput transcriptome sequencing and gene expression analysis were performed on plantlets of a cold-tolerant genotype of the pineapple cultivar 'Shenwan'...

Raffinose family oligosaccharides (RFO) accumulating during seed development are thought to play a role in the desiccation tolerance of seeds. However, the functions of RFO in desiccation tolerance have not been elucidated. Here we examine the functions of RFO in Arabidopsis thaliana plants under drought- and cold-stress conditions, based on the analyses of function and expression of genes invo...

Salicylic acid (SA) plays an important role in the regulation of plant ripening and responses to abiotic stresses. In this study, the protective effect of SA on cold stress-caused oxidative damage in grape (Vitis vinifera L.) bunches was investigated during cold storage.  Grape bunches treated with 2 mM SA and  stored at 0°C with 85-90% RH for 30 days. Samples were selected from each treatment ...

Cold stress resulting from chilling and freezing temperatures substantially reduces crop production worldwide. To identify genes critical for cold tolerance in plants, we screened Arabidopsis thaliana mutants for deregulated expression of a firefly luciferase reporter gene under the control of the C-REPEAT BINDING FACTOR2 (CBF2) promoter (CBF2:LUC). A regulator of CBF gene expression1 (rcf1-1) ...

To study effects of salicylic acid (SA) treatments (0, 0.5, 1 and 2 mM) in two forms of seed priming (for 24 h) and spraying on seedling at 4-6 leaf stage an experiment was conducted on periwinkle (Catharanthus roseus Don.) with and without exposure to a mild cold stress of 8 °C (for 32 h). Seeds were sown in trays containing peat-based substrate (with 20% sandy loam field soil). Transplants of...

Bermudagrass is widely utilized in parks, lawns, and golf courses. However, cold is a key factor limiting resource use in bermudagrass. Therefore, it is meaningful to study the mechanism of bermudagrass response to cold. Nitric oxide (NO) is a crucial signal molecule with multiple biological functions. Thus, the objective of this study was to investigate whether NO play roles in bermudagrass re...

BACKGROUND The ability to withstand thermal stress is considered to be of crucial importance for individual fitness and species' survival. Thus, organisms need to employ effective mechanisms to ensure survival under stressful thermal conditions, among which phenotypic plasticity is considered a particularly quick and effective one. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS In a series of experiments we ...