Proceedings of the XLVII Italian Society of Agricultural Genetics - SIGA Annual Congress

Verona, Italy - 24/27 September, 2003

ISBN 88-900622-4-X

Poster Abstract - 1.19

MOLECULAR ANALYSIS OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PLANT DEVELOPMENT AND COLD ACCLIMATION IN BARLEY

C. CROSATTI, D. PAGANI, C. CAMPOLI, F. RIZZA

Experimental Institute for Cereal Research , Section of Fiorenzuola d’Arda, Via S. Protaso 302, 29017 Fiorenzuola d’Arda (PC), Italy

frost tolerance, barley, cold-regulated genes, cor14b, stage of development

Agronomic studies indicated that frost tolerance of barley and wheat, besides genetic factors, depends on plant developmental stage. The maximum level of frost tolerance is reached when plants undergo to freezing at three-four leaf stage suggesting a possible interaction between plant development and cold acclimation capacity. In this work we have investigated the interaction between plant development and cold acclimation in a field experiment through the analysis of cor14b messenger and protein accumulation . cor14b was used as a molecular tool to monitor the development of cold acclimation since the expression of this gene was found associated with the acquisition of frost tolerance. Our results demonstrate that the amount of COR14b protein was related to both growth habit (winter cultivars accumulate more COR14b than spring ones) and stage of development. We found that plants accumulate more COR14b and are indeed more frost tolerant at the third leaf stage than in the first one. The comparison of protein accumulation in the fields vs. growth chamber suggested that the higher amount of COR14b in earlier sowed plants is mainly because they spend more days under hardening conditions.