565 POST-TEMPERATURE EFFECTS ON HEAT OF METABOLISM AFTER “NEAR- LETHAL” HEAT STRESS IN STEM TISSUES OF RED-OSIER DOGWOOD

Abstract

Previously, we reported recovery of plants from “Near-Lethal” (NL) (Sub-Lethal) stresses was dependent on stage of development and post-stress environment Dormant plants exposed to NL-heat, freezing, and hydrogen cyanamide either died or were severely injured when stored at 0°C or recovered at 23°C and natural condition. This study reports on the changes in the evolution of metabolic heat in dormant red-osier dogwood (Cornus sericea L.) stem tissues after beat stress. Heat stress (51°C for half an hour) was followed by one of two post-stress environment (PSE) (0° or 23°C dark condition). Isothermal measurements of the heat of metabolism of the tissues were taken after 0, 1, 2, 5, 7 and 11 days of PSE. A significant reduction of metabolic heat generation occured in heat stressed plants at 0°C PSE from one to 11 days of incubation as compared to the non-stressed tissues. At 23°C PSE, no significant differences of heat generation between stressed and non stressed tissues were found within 7 days of incubation. The rate of metabolic. heat measured by decreasing temperature scanning microcalorimetry (21° to 1°C) were lower in beat stressed tissues. Arrhenius plots of metabolic heat rate gave a linear slope for non-stressed tissues and a complex slop for NL-stressed tissues at lower temperatures. Energy of activation (Ea) between 1°-8°C were 15.45 and 83.882 KJ mol-1 for NL-heat and non-stressed tissues, respectively.