Factors contributing to deep supercooling capability and cold survival in dwarf bamboo (Sasa senanensis) leaf blades.

ABSTRACT: Wintering Sasa senanensis, dwarf bamboo, is known to employ deep supercooling as the mechanism of cold hardiness in most of its tissues from leaves to rhizomes. The breakdown of supercooling in leaf blades has been shown to proceed in a random and scattered manner with a small piece of tissue surrounded by longitudinal and transverse veins serving as the unit of freezing. The unique cold hardiness mechanism of this plant was further characterized using current year leaf blades. Cold hardiness levels (LT20: the lethal temperature at which 20% of the leaf blades are injured) seasonally increased from August (-11°C) to December (-20°C). This coincided with the increases in supercooling capability of the leaf blades as expressed by the initiation temperature of low temperature exotherms (LTE)

SUBMITTER: Ishikawa M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4292310 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature