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The responses of plant leaves to chilling were studied in potato (Solanum tuberosum L., cv. Desnitsa) and in its transformants with the native desA gene that encodes the acyl-lipid Δ12-desaturase from the cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 and with the hybrid desA gene fused to the reporter gene of thermostable lichenase (licBM3) from Clostridium thermocellum. Cold stress caused a rapid and significant increase in superoxide production and lipid peroxidation (the content of conjugated dienes and malonic dialdehyde) in wild-type plants. By contrast no significant increase was detected in transformed plants under cold stress conditions. This can be attributed to the fact that the overexpression of the acyl-lipid Δ12-desaturase in transformed potato plants promotes fatty acid polyunsaturation and presumably averts the accelerated generation of the superoxide anion, thus suppressing lipid peroxidation under low-temperature stress