Antarctic hair grass (Deschampsia antarctica E. Desv.), the only grass indigenous to Antarctica, has well-developed freezing tolerance, strongly induced by cold acclimation. Here, we show that in response to low temperatures, D. antarctica expresses potent recrystallization inhibition (RI) activity that, inhibits the growth of small ice crystals into potentially damaging large ones, is proteinaceous and localized to the apoplasm. A gene family from D. antarctica encoding putative homologs of an ice recrystallization inhibition protein (IRIP) has been isolated and characterized. IRIPs are apoplastically targeted proteins with two potential ice-binding motifs: 1-9 leucine-rich repeats (LRRs) and c. 16 'IRIP' repeats. IRIP genes appear to be confined to the grass subfamily Pooideae and their products, exhibit sequence similarity to phytosulphokine receptors and are predicted to adopt conformations with two ice-binding surfaces. D. antarctica IRIP (DaIRIP) transcript levels are greatly enhanced in leaf tissue following cold acclimation. Transgenic Arabidopsis thaliana expressing a DaIRIP has novel RI activity, and purified DaIRIP, when added back to extracts of leaves from non-acclimated D. antarctica, can reconstitute the activity found in acclimated plants. We propose that IRIP-mediated RI activity may contribute to the cryotolerance of D. antarctica, and thus to its unique ability to have colonized Antarctica.
Three chlorsulfuron-resistant kochia accessions were tested for levels of resistance to sulfonylurea and imidazolinone herbicides, based on whole plant response and sensitivity of the target enzyme. The resistant Minot and Chester accessions were not affected by treatment with 175 g ha−1 chlorsulfuron, and I50 values for the Chester accession ranged from 22-fold (metsulfuron-methyl) to 196-fold (chlorsulfuron) higher than the susceptible Bozeman accession. However, the Chester accession was 1.5- to 2-fold more resistant than Minot to five sulfonylurea herbicides, as determined by acetolactate synthase (ALS) I50 values. The third resistant accession (Power) displayed an intermediate response and was only 2- to 5-fold more resistant than the susceptible Bozeman accession to all sulfonylurea herbicides tested. The Minot and Chester accessions were slightly cross-resistant to four imidazolinone herbicides, ranging from 2-fold (imazamethabenz, imazethapyr, and imazaquin) to 6-fold (imazapyr) more resistant than the Bozeman accession, but cross-resistance levels did not differ appreciably between the Minot and Chester accessions. The Power accession was not cross-resistant to the four imidazolinone herbicides tested. The results demonstrate that degrees of ALS resistance and cross-resistance are highly variable among kochia populations: these differences may be due to the type of mutation in the gene encoding ALS.
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