Chilling Injury: A Review of Possible Causes

Abstract

Chilling injury has been defined as injury at temperatures low enough to cause damage but not cause freezing of water (17). Common usage refers to temperatures between 0° and 15°C, which cause irreversible damage to tropical and subtropical species. Except for the obvious postharvest loss of quality in many fruits and poor stand establishment in some field crops, the economic importance of chilling injury is difficult to quantify. Chilling injury often results in plants being “set back” so that maturation is delayed and yield reduced. A better understanding of the physiological and biochemical causes of injury and mechanisms of resistance will enable the horticulturist to design better cultural practices and the breeder to develop more resistant cultivars.

Genetic Relationship, SPAD Reading, and Soluble Sugar Content as Indices for Evaluating the Graft Compatibility of Citrus Interstocks

“…It was further found that the free proline and MDA content of ‘Yuanxiaochun’ with ‘Harumi’ as interstock were higher at 60 DAG. It is well known that the accumulation of free proline and MDA plays a key role in the plant response to stress [ 59 , 60 ]. The above results indicated that the grafting compatibility of ‘Yuanxiaochun’ with ‘Harumi’ as interstock at 60 DAG might have started to deteriorate.…”

Review of recent advances in post-harvest techniques for tropical cut flowers and future prospects: Heliconia as a case-study

“…Temperature: The recommended storage temperature for cut Heliconia is >12°C (Broschat and Donselman, 1983b;Criley and Paull, 1993) since all species and cultivars of this genus are highly sensitive to low temperature condition. chilling injury (CI) such as depressions, browning, or dark spots on the bracts and flowers can occur if they are stored at temperatures below 10°C for 2 days, as reported by several researchers (Markhart, 1986;Paull, 1991;Darras, 2020 andCarrera-Alvarado et al, 2021). Silva et al (2019) evaluated the optimum storage temperature of H. densiflora and H. psittacorum (in three different color varieties: 'Red' [5R 4/10], 'Orange' [7.5Y 7/10], and 'Yellow' [2.5Y 7/10]) under controlled temperature condition.…”

“…CI is a physiological malfunction of plants caused by exposure low temperatures rather than freezing temperatures, rendering the product unusable (Markhart, 1986;Parkin et al, 1989). Loss of membrane integrity due to low-temperature-induced membrane lipid phase transitions and physiological dysfunctions are the fundamental biochemical causes of CI (Bhattacharya and Bhattacharya, 2022).…”

Introduction to the Symposium

“…They illustrate the critical need to understand the biochemistry of stress response before recombinant DNA approaches can be used to ma nipulate stress resistance. Obstacles and opportunities are also ap parent in the way that levels of biological organization confer stress resistance (1,3,4,8). The intent of this symposium is to focus attention on the need to " .…”

“…Therefore, well-organized and focused descriptive studies-at various levels of biological organization-are needed to clarify key elements of adaptive response that may lead to the identification of stress-resistance genes. Excellent examples of basic horticultural research to meet this need are provided by the studies of drought (3), salt (4), freezing (1), and chilling (8) response that comprise the symposium. The authors have highlighted specific cellular and/ or biochemical features that bring us closer to the molecular genetic core of classic horticultural problems.…”