Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is a tropical crop, but is also grown in temperate regions in late spring to summer. Cold temperature damage is a common problem for early‐planted rice in temperate countries. Physiological responses to chilling, including antioxidative enzyme activity, were investigated in rice to identify mechanisms of chilling tolerance. Plants were exposed to 15°C (cold‐acclimated) or 25°C (nonacclimated) for 3 d, under 250 μmol m−2 s−1 photosynthetically active radiation (PAR). All plants were then exposed to chilling temperature at 5°C for 3 d and allowed to recover at 25°C for 5 d. Leaf fresh weight, relative water content, lipid peroxidation, chlorophyll a fluorescence, and quantum yield showed that cold‐acclimated leaves were less affected by chilling compared to nonacclimated leaves. Cold‐acclimated leaves also recovered faster from chilling injury than nonacclimated leaves. We analyzed the isozyme profile and activity of superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), ascorbate peroxidase (APX), and glutathione reductase (GR). Significant induction of expression and activity of antioxidative enzymes CAT and APX in leaves and SOD, CAT, APX, and GR in roots were observed. We deduced that CAT and APX are most important for cold acclimation and chilling tolerance. Increased activity of antioxidants in roots is more important for cold tolerance than increased activity in shoots. Chilling‐sensitive rice plants can be made tolerant by cold acclimation.

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To determine whether differential tolerance to paraquat among cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) leaves of various ages correlates with low-temperature tolerance, leaves of three cultivars at the four-leaf stage were exposed to 5 °C. Leaves tolerant to paraquat were also tolerant to low temperature as indicated by electrolyte leakage changes in leaf tissue, lipid peroxidation, and photosynthesis measurements. The youngest leaf (leaves were numbered 1 to 4 with the youngest leaf given 4) on the same plant was more tolerant than older leaves to low temperature. During chilling, lipid peroxidation and H2O2 content increased in the oldest leaf when compared with the three younger leaves. Photosynthetic activity and chlorophyll a fluorescence (Fv/Fm) were significantly lower in leaf 1 than in leaf 4. There was no difference in superoxide dismutase, catalase, ascorbate peroxidase (APX), and glutathione reductase activities among various leaf ages in untreated plants. Induction of antioxidant activity in response to low temperature was higher in the youngest leaf than in the oldest leaf. Expression of APX isozymes increased in response to low temperature, and their expression was the highest in the youngest leaf. Current results support earlier findings that antioxidant protection also was a mechanism for paraquat tolerance.

We investigated the levels of resistance and accumulation of terapyrroles, reactive oxygen species, lipid peroxidation, and antioxidative enzymes for reasons of growth reduction in herbicide-transgenic rice overexpressing Myxococcus xanthus, Arabidopsis thaliana, and human protoporphyrinogen oxidase (Protox) genes. The transgenic rice overexpressing M. xanthus (MX, MX1, PX), A. thaliana (AP31, AP36, AP37), and human (H45, H48, H49) Protox genes showed 43~65, 41~72 and 17~70-fold more resistance to oxyfluorfen, respectively, than the wild type.Among transgenic rice lines overexpressing Protox genes, several lines showed normal growth compared with the wild type, but several lines showed in reduction of plant height and shoot fresh weight under different light conditions. However, reduction of plant height of AP37 was much higher than other lines for the experimental period. On the other hand, the reduction of plant height and shoot fresh weight in the transgenic rice was higher in high light condition than in low light condition. Enhanced levels of Proto Ⅸ were observed in transgenic lines AP31, AP37, and H48 at 7 days after seeding (DAS) and transgenic lines PX, AP37, and H48 at 14 DAS relative to wild type. There were no differences in Mg-Proto Ⅸ of transgenic lines except for H41 and H48 and Mg-Proto Ⅸ monomethyl ester of transgenic lines except for MX, MX1, and PX. Although accumulation of tetrapyrrole intermediates was observed in transgenic lines, their tetrapyrrole accumulation levels were not enough to inhibit growth of transgenic rice. There were no differences