Climatic Constraints Drive the Evolution of Low Temperature Resistance in Woody Plants

Abstract

Cold and frost are stress factors of widespread occurrence for plants. They damage woody plants due to chilling temperatures in the tropics, by freezing sensitive plants in regions with episodic frosts and temperatures down to -10 °C, and by freezing of even tolerant plants in regions with cold winters below -10 and -40 °C. The wide range of frost resistances in plants from different climatic zones indicates that the ability to become hardened to freezing has evolved in a stepwise process. There are opinions how an evolutionary acquisition of freezing tolerance could have taken place in the following way: First there is a differentiation of better adapted ecotypes and in the long term a series of functional plant groups develop along climatic gradients. Frequent climatic stress and climatic changes stimulate the selection of new genotypes resistant to climatic extremes. Furthermore, plants exposed to multiple stress factors in their habitat acquire a general cross tolerance to climatic constraints.The objective of this review is the understanding of low temperature resistance in woody plants, e.g. stabilization of biomembranes by lipid composition, deep supercooling, and ability to become freezing tolerant during winter dormancy. An over a hundred year long history of investigating frost stress and survival of different plant species has brought about an important understanding of basic processes. Recently antifreeze proteins which slow the freezing processes, and proteins, which protect the protoplasm against low temperature, frost and dehydration have been discovered. Findings that help to explain the mechanisms for coping with low temperature will be applicable to agriculture, horticulture, forestry and bioclimatology. The objective of this review is the understanding of basic processes of low temperature stress and the evolutionary adaptation of resistance in woody plants. 'Adaptation' is the response of plants to changing environmental conditions; it may be transitory (phenotypic) or permanent (genotypic). 'Evolutionary adaptation' is used here in the sense of genetically determined.The first descriptive investigations of frost damage and freezing resistance in different plant species were carried out very early e.g., Sachs (1860), Müller Thurgau (1886), Molisch (1897). From the middle of the last century onwards intensive analytical investigations of cytological, biophysical and biochemical mechanisms were made on plant organs and tissues (e.g., Asahina, 1956;Heber, 1968;Siminovitch et al., 1968; Krasavtsev, 1972;Burke et al., 1976), and general conclusions were drawn from these results (e.g., Levitt, 1980; Tumanov, 1979). Recently our knowledge of low temperature stress and frost resistance has been advanced due to molecular biological methods. Nowadays certain polypeptides and proteins which trigger controlled freezing and which protect the protoplasm against low temperature, frost and dehydration are known. All findings that help to explain mechanisms for coping with low temperature will have ...

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