Cold acclimation efficiency of different Prunus and Fragaria species and cultivars in vitro

Abstract

Winter hardiness is one of the main traits affecting survival, productivity and cultivar choice for important horticultural plants in a temperate climatic zone. Given the complexity of the trait and the often fluctuating winter weather, extensive field testing over many years would be required to gain reliable results. Testing for cold tolerance under controlled conditions to grade genotypes has been used in several plant breeding programs to identify superior genotypes of different species. The aim of the present study was to investigate cold tolerance of microshoots of different genotypes of the genera Prunus and Fragaria after 7, 14, 28 and 56 days of cold acclimation, by measuring ion leakage and evaluating the critical temperature (CT50) after freezing in vitro. Genotypes of Rosacea family demonstrated distinct patterns of CT50 change during cold acclimation. Cold acclimation for 56 days decreased the CT50 value by 1.3-2.0°C for Prunus microshots and by 0.8-2.1°C for Fragaria microshoots in comparison to nonacclimated plants. The results of cold acclimation and freezing treatments of Rosacea family plants in vitro show that for maximal cold hardiness, acclimation for 56 days or longer is required. Sour cherry (Prunus cerasus) cv. 'Orkolija', garden strawberry (Fragaria × ananassa) cv. 'Melody', Virginia strawberry (F. virginiana) and musk strawberry (F. moschata) were the most winterhardy after 56 days' cold acclimation. The data obtained in the study can be used to improve breeding and cryopreservation technologies of Rosacea plants, and lay the foundation for identification of genes responsible for efficient cold acclimation and low temperature tolerance.

Breeding Climate-Resilient Bananas

“…Contrary, in a colder and rainy summer, the content of anthocyanins and the unsaturation level of fatty acids were significantly higher than in a warmer and drier summer (Jaakkola et al 2012). The higher greenhouse temperature reduced the ratio of cyanidine 3-O-glucoside and increased the proportion of pelargonidine 3-O-glucoside in berries of wild strawberry (Rugienius et al 2016b).…”

“…It has been established that higher temperatures and water deficit applied from the second week of cropping season accelerate and sustain berry ripening and increase the yield of F. vesca berries. During the first week of treatment, water stress has been shown to increase the amount of anthocyanin in berries that subsequently decrease at the second part of the experiment when morphological signs of water deficit have emerged (Rugienius et al 2016b). examined the effect of physiological integration on survival, growth and stress indicators such as osmolytes, reactive oxygen intermediates and antioxidant enzymes in a clonal plant, Fragaria orientalis, growing in homogenous and heterogeneous environments differing in patch contrast of water availability.…”

Temperature is an important driver for cold acclimation in garden roses

“…Our experimental design was based on the literature review on cold resistance of woody plants by Weiser (1970) and related research articles on cold acclimation in roses and other woody plants (peach, hybrid aspen, raspberry, etc.) under artificial cold treatments (Karam and Sullivan, 1991;González-Rossia et al, 2008;Palonen and Junttila, 1999;Rugienius et al, 2016;Sakai and Larcher 1987;Welling et al, 2002). The setting of controlled day length and temperature was further optimized based on a previous study on cold acclimation of roses (Ouyang et al, 2020).…”

Ornamental potential and freezing tolerance of six Thymus spp. species as ground-covering plants in the landscape

“…Nunes and Ray Smith (2003) reported that the electrolyte leakage (EL) test performed on young leaves at −14°C temperature for 60 min proved to be the most efficient means for detecting both acclimation and cultivar differences in rose clover freezing tolerance. There are many studies in which the electrolyte leakage has been suggested to be used for ranking stress tolerance of such plant species as Prunus, Fragaria (Rugienius et al, 2016) and date palm (Al Busaidi, Farag, 2015).…”