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. 1976 Feb;57(2):290–296. doi: 10.1104/pp.57.2.290

Osmotic Shrinkage as a Factor in Freezing Injury in Plant Tissue Cultures

Leigh E Towill a,1, Peter Mazur a
PMCID: PMC542010  PMID: 16659469

Abstract

Haplopappus gracilis and Acer saccharum tissue culture cells are extremely sensitive to freezing injury, and exhibit a decrease in survival from 98% at −1 C to 4% at −3 C (Haplopappus) and 92% at −3 C to 13% at −5 C (Acer) when suspended in distilled H2O, seeded at −1 C, and then cooled by 0.1 C/minute. Similar results are obtained when cells are suspended in growth medium. The extent of shrinkage of cells during freezing can be duplicated by exposure of the cells to plasmolyzing solutions of nonpenetrating substances (Δ Tf = 1.86 φvm). Solutions of sucrose and glycerol that produce extensive plasmolysis cause a decrease in survival within 3 to 5 minutes at room temperature, and the higher the molality to which the cell is exposed the greater the injury. Also, the rate of rehydration of the plasmolyzed cell and of the frozen cell affects its survival, with the slower rate being more beneficial. The close correlation between the decrease in survival at subzero temperatures and the decrease in survival when cells are placed in solutions having osmolalities, which could produce the same extent of shrinkage as these killing temperatures, suggests that this shrinkage is related to freezing injury in tissue culture cells.

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Selected References

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

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