Author
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PANTA, GANESH - UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA |
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Rowland, Lisa |
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Submitted to: BARC Poster Day
Publication Type: Abstract Only Publication Acceptance Date: 4/8/1999 Publication Date: N/A Citation: N/A Interpretive Summary: Technical Abstract: Previously three dehydrins of 65, 60, and 14 kD were identified as the predominant proteins present in cold acclimated blueberry floral buds. Levels were shown to increase with cold acclimation and decrease with deacclimation and resumption of growth. Dehydrins are a group of heat stable, glycine-rich plant proteins that are induced by environmental stimuli that cause dehydration such as drought, low temperature, salinity, and seed maturation. In the present study, expression of dehydrins was examined in several blueberry cultivars in response to drought and low temperature treatment. During 32 days of drought stress, relative shoot water content dropped to 51 to 90% depending upon the cultivar. For cold stress experiments, cultivars with different chilling requirements and levels of cold hardiness were kept at 4°C for 5 weeks. Higher levels of dehydrins were present in the cold hardy and drought tolerant cultivars than in the cold and drought sensitive cultivars. In both stress situations, the level of dehydrins was higher in stems than in leaves or roots, but lower than in buds. |
