Membrane alterations in winter rye and Brassica napus cells during lethal freezing and plasmolysis

Abstract

Abstract Cells fixed during freezing or plasmolysis were used to study membrane alterations in hardened and non‐hardened Brassica napus suspension‐cultured cells and rye leaf mesophyll cells. The plasmalemma in non‐hardened rye mesophyll cells formed multilamellar vesicles during lethal freezing at high subzero temperatures (–5°C). These vesicles became highly condensed at lower subzero temperatures (–10°C). Conversely, cold‐hardened rye mesophyll cells did not undergo membrane alterations at these temperatures. The results from plasmolysis of B. napus and rye mesophyll cells hardened by ABA at 25 °C and low temperature (2°C), respectively, verify the cell response to lethal freezing. Again there was a continuum of responses with 1 kmol m−3 balanced salt causing multilamellar protrusions. Appression of the plasmalemma against the tonoplast to form multilamellar vesicles and the invagination of these vesicles into the tonoplast were also observed in rye cells undergoing lethal plasmolysis. Increasing the plasmolysing solution to 3 kmol m−3 occasionally caused the formation of multilamellar vesicles on the cell surface of hardened rye mesophyll cells.