Changes in dehydrin composition in winter cereal crowns during winter survival

Abstract

This study is focused on examination of crown dehydrin content during overwintering and spring dehardening periods in three Poaceae family winter plants: rye, wheat, and triticale. Frost resistances of seedlings in laboratory and field conditions were compared. Immunoblotting demonstrates that winter wheat and winter triticale differed from winter rye based on their dehydrin qualitative content. Unlike wheat and triticale, rye lacked a protein with a molecular mass of 55.3 kDa. Winter wheat contained a polypeptide with a molecular mass of 29 kDa in autumn but lacked it in winter compared with triticale. Comparison of dehydrin spectra from the three winter crops suggests a relationship between synthesis of dehydrins with molecular masses of 29 and 55.3 kDa and frost resistance of the plant species.