Effects of cold acclimation and exogenous pytohormone abscisic acid treatment on physiological indicators of winterness wheat

Abstract

We investigated the changes in the concentrations of protein, soluble sugar, proline, malondialdehyde and the antioxidative enzyme activities of superoxide dismutase, peroxidase, catalase of three wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) cultivars, DN1, Mironovskaya 808 (M808) and Chinese Spring (CS) under cold stress and exogenous abscisic acid treatment in the growth chamber. The results on physiological indices suggested that DNI and M808 were higher than that of CS on cold resistance. We also found that abscisic acid had significant impacts on cold resistance, suggesting that low concentration of abscisic acid could improve cold acclimation of wheat under low temperature and the high concentration could inhibit cold acclimation. Therefore, physiological changes in wheat seedlings are useful to better understand chilling stress responses in plants which promise to improve cold resistance of crops at low temperatures. © 2010 Academic Journals Inc.