Although root-to-shoot communication has been intensively investigated in plants under drought, few studies have examined root-to-shoot communication under chilling. Here we explored whether root-to-shoot communication contributes to the chilling-light tolerance of cucumber shoots and clarified the key signal involves in this communication. After leaf discs chilling-light treatment, the photoin...

Exposure to a chilling temperature of 2.5 degrees C for 96 h inhibited the subsequent growth of cucumber seedling radicles at 25 degrees C by 92%. Exposing seedling with 5 +/- 1 mm long radicles to acetaldehyde vapour (275 micro l l(-1)) or to an aqueous ethanol solution (0.6 M) for 2 h, or to 45 degrees C for 10 min before chilling, increased chilling tolerance so that the chilling treatment r...

The growth of rice (Oryza sativa L., cv. M202) seedling radicles, initially 10 +/- 1 mm long, was linear for the 96 h it took them to grow to 150 mm at 25 degrees C. Exposure to 5 degrees C for 24 h reduced the rate of growth by about 50%, and longer exposures caused a progressive reduction in growth. Initial radicle length significantly affected chilling sensitivity: with 2 days at 5 degrees C...

Chilling effects on respiration during the recovery period were studied in two maize (Zea mays L.) cultivars differing in their tolerance to chilling: Penjalinan, a chilling-sensitive cultivar, and Z7, a chilling-tolerant cultivar. Both cultivars were exposed to 5 degrees C for 5 d, after which measurements were taken at 25 degrees C. Chlorophyll fluorescence analysis in dark-adapted leaves sho...

In order to understand cold adaptability and explore additional genetic resources for the cold tolerance improvement of rice, we investigated the genetic variation of 529 rice accessions under natural chilling and cold shock stress conditions at the seedling stage using genome-wide association studies; a total of 132 loci were identified. Among them, 12 loci were common for both chilling and co...

Background Field observations and glasshouse studies have suggested links between boron (B)-deficiency and leaf damage induced by low temperature in crop plants, but causal relationships between these two stresses at physiological, biochemical and molecular levels have yet to be explored. Limited evidence at the whole-plant level suggests that chilling temperature in the root zone restricts B u...

BACKGROUND Field observations and glasshouse studies have suggested links between boron (B)-deficiency and leaf damage induced by low temperature in crop plants, but causal relationships between these two stresses at physiological, biochemical and molecular levels have yet to be explored. Limited evidence at the whole-plant level suggests that chilling temperature in the root zone restricts B u...

Plants modify their development to adapt to their environment, protecting themselves from detrimental conditions such as chilling stress by triggering a variety of signaling pathways; however, little is known about how plants coordinate developmental patterns and stress responses at the molecular level. Here, we demonstrate that interacting transcription factors OsMADS57 and OsTB1 directly targ...

Salicylic acid (SA) plays an important role in plant response to abiotic stresses. This study investigated the potential role of SA in alleviating the adverse effects of chilling stress on photosynthesis and growth in watermelon (Citrullus lanatus). Chilling stress induced the simultaneous accumulation of free and conjugated SA in watermelon plants, and the chilling-induced SA production was at...

Watermelon [Citrullus lanatus (Thunb.) Matsum. & Nakai] is one of the Cucurbitaceae species and subtropical crops that exhibit chilling injury (CI) when exposed to low temperatures. Watermelon seedlings were tested for chilling tolerance using methods modified from cucumber. Three experiments were conducted using different combinations of chilling durations of 6, 12, 24, or 36 hours and chillin...