It is usually thought that adequate winter chill is required for the full flowering of many temperate woody species. This paper investigates the sensitivity of blackcurrant bud burst and flowering to natural weather fluctuations in a temperate maritime climate, and compares a range of chill models that have been proposed for assessing the accumulation of winter chill. Bud break for four contras...

One of the major abiotic stresses limiting the productivity and the geographical distribution of many important crops is low temperature. Hydrogen sulfide (H2S) is an important signaling molecule involved in several stress-resistance processes such as drought, salinity and heavy metal stresses in plants. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of exogenous H2S...

Ultraviolet-B radiation (UV-B) is generally considered to negatively impact the photosynthetic apparatus and plant growth. UV-B damages PSII but does not directly influence PSI. However, PSI and PSII successively drive photosynthetic electron transfer, therefore, the interaction between these systems is unavoidable. So we speculated that UV-B could indirectly affect PSI under chilling-light con...

In some studies, tissues from plants that have been genetically transformed to overproduce antioxidant enzymes sustain less damage when abruptly exposed to short-term chilling in the laboratory. However, few studies have examined the performance of transgenic plants during longer-term growth under chilling conditions. We compared growth of transgenic cotton that overproduces glutathione reducta...

Seven major lipid classes were isolated from leaves of chilling-sensitive and chilling-resistant plants, and the temperature-dependent phase behaviors of their aqueous dispersions were studied by a fluorescence polarization method using trans-parinaric acid and its methyl ester. Phosphatidylglycerols from the chilling-sensitive plants went from the liquid crystalline state into the phase separa...

Quantifying below-ground carbon (C) allocation is particularly difficult as methods usually disturb the root-mycorrhizal-soil continuum. We reduced C allocation below ground of loblolly pine trees by: (1) physically girdling trees and (2) physiologically girdling pine trees by chilling the phloem. Chilling reduced cambium temperatures by approximately 18 degrees C. Both methods rapidly reduced ...

The level of three major polypeptides of 65, 60, and 14 kD increased in response to chilling unit accumulation in floral buds of a woody perennial, blueberry (Vaccinium, section Cynaococcus). The level of the polypeptides increased most dramatically within 300 h of chilling and decreased to the prechilling level with the initiation of budbreak. Cold-hardiness levels were assessed for dormant bu...

The goal of this study was to identify cold-tolerant genotypes within two species of Miscanthus related to the exceptionally chilling-tolerant C4 biomass crop accession: M. ×giganteus 'Illinois' (Mxg) as well as in other Mxg genotypes. The ratio of leaf elongation at 10 °C/5 °C to that at 25 °C/25 °C was used to identify initially the 13 most promising Miscanthus genotypes out of 51 studied. Ne...

Grafted watermelon plants available in the United States are typically transported for a long distance from specialized nursery to production field. To investigate effects of chilling stress during transportation on early plant growth and development, grafted nongrafted ‘Tri-X-313’ seedless ( Citrullus lanatus ) seedlings were subjected low-temperature treatments applied over 72-hour period. Th...