Abscisic acid and mefluidide in the regulation of cold hardiness development in Solanum tuberosum L. potato

Plants of Solanum tuberosum L. potato do not cold acclimate when exposed to low temperature such as 5-degrees-C, day/night.When ABA (45 muM) was added to the culture medium, stem-cultured plantlets of S. tuberosum, cv. Red Pontiac, either grown at 20-degrees-C/15-degrees-C, day/night, or at 5-degrees-C, increased in cold hardiness from -2-degrees-C (killing temperature) to -4.5-degrees-C. The increase in cold hardiness could be inhibited in both temperature regimes if cycloheximide (70 muM) was added to the culture medium at the inception of ABA treatment. Cycloheximide did not inhibit cold hardiness development, however, when it was added to the culture medium 3 days after ABA treatment. When pot-grown plants were foliar sprayed with mefluidide (50 muM), ABA content increased from 10 nmol to 30 nmol g-1 dry weight and plants increased in cold hardiness from -2-degrees-C to about -3.5-degrees-C. The increases in free ABA and cold hardiness occurred only in plants grown at 20-degrees-C/15-degrees-C; neither ABA nor cold hardiness increased in plants grown at 5-degrees-C. The results suggest that an increase in ABA and a subsequent de novo synthesis of proteins are required for the development of cold hardiness in S. tuberosum regardless of temperature regime, and that the inability to synthesize ABA at low temperature, rather than protein synthesis, appears to be the reason why S. tuberosum does not cold acclimate.