Content dynamics of free carbohydrates, abscisic acid, and cytokinins in both leaves and tillering nodes of winter crops in an abnormally warm winter

Abstract

The free water-soluble carbohydrates, cytokinins (Cyt), and abscisic acid (ABA) content in the leaves and tillering nodes tissues of winter crops, wheat, rye, and wheat-wheatgrass hybrid (WWG) in connection with their survival in the abnormally warm winters of 2006–2008 was studied. A correlation between the monosaccharide and phytohormone content dynamics and weather conditions, i.e., plant survival, was revealed. Frost resistant winter rye was the least resistant to frequent and long thaws, 50% of which died in the winter 2006/07 and more than 90% of which in the winter 2007/08. The Cyt and monosaccharide level increased in the tissues of wintering organs in the period that preceded mass mortality of the plants. Middle frost resistant wheat and WWG changed their metabolism rate more appropriately in the abnormal warm winters of 2006–2008, which allowed them to survive more successfully in the atypical wintering conditions.