Skip to main content
Plant Physiology logoLink to Plant Physiology
. 1985 Dec;79(4):1033–1037. doi: 10.1104/pp.79.4.1033

Factors Affecting Ice Nucleation in Plant Tissues

Edward N Ashworth 1, Glen A Davis 1, Jeffrey A Anderson 1
PMCID: PMC1075021  PMID: 16664524

Abstract

Factors affecting the ice nucleation temperature of plants and plant tissues were examined. The mass of a sample had a marked effect on ice nucleation temperature. Small tissue samples supercooled to −10°C and were not accurate predictors of the nucleation temperature of intact plants in either laboratory or field experiments. This effect was not unique to plant tissues and was observed in autoclaved and control soil samples. Ice nucleation temperatures of bean, corn, cotton, and soybean seedlings were influenced by the length of subzero exposure, presence of ice nucleation active bacteria, and leaf surface wetness. The number of factors influencing ice nucleation temperature suggested that predicting the freezing behavior of plants in the field will be complex.

Full text

PDF
1034

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Lindow S. E., Arny D. C., Upper C. D. Bacterial ice nucleation: a factor in frost injury to plants. Plant Physiol. 1982 Oct;70(4):1084–1089. doi: 10.1104/pp.70.4.1084. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Lindow S. E., Hirano S. S., Barchet W. R., Arny D. C., Upper C. D. Relationship between Ice Nucleation Frequency of Bacteria and Frost Injury. Plant Physiol. 1982 Oct;70(4):1090–1093. doi: 10.1104/pp.70.4.1090. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Marcellos H., Single W. V. Supercooling and heterogeneous nucleation of freezing in tissues of tender plants. Cryobiology. 1979 Feb;16(1):74–77. doi: 10.1016/0011-2240(79)90013-0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Rajashekar C. B., Li P. H., Carter J. V. Frost injury and heterogeneous ice nucleation in leaves of tuber-bearing solanum species : ice nucleation activity of external source of nucleants. Plant Physiol. 1983 Apr;71(4):749–755. doi: 10.1104/pp.71.4.749. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Plant Physiology are provided here courtesy of Oxford University Press

RESOURCES