X-ray phase contrast imaging ofVitisspp. buds shows freezing pattern and correlation between volume and cold hardiness

Abstract

Grapevine (Vitis spp.) buds must survive winter temperatures in order to resume growth when suitable conditions return in spring. They do so by developing cold hardiness through deep supercooling, but the mechanistic process of supercooling in buds remains largely unknown. Here we use synchrotron X-ray phase contrast imaging to study cold hardiness-related characteristics of V. amurensis, V. riparia, and V. vinifera buds: time-resolved 2D imaging was used to visualize freezing; and microtomography was used to evaluate morphological changes during deacclimation. Bud cold hardiness was determined (low temperature exotherms; LTEs) using needle thermocouples during 2D imaging as buds were cooled with a N2 gas cryostream. Resolution in 2D imaging did not allow for ice crystal identification, but freezing was assessed due to movement of tissues coinciding with LTE values. Freezing was observed to propagate from the center of the bud toward the outer bud scales. The freezing events observed lasted several minutes. Additionally, loss of supercooling ability appears to be correlated with increases in bud tissue volume during the process of deacclimation, but major increases in volume occur after most of the supercooling ability is lost, suggesting growth resumption processes are limited by deacclimation state.HighlightX-ray phase contrast imaging shows freezing occurs over several minutes and propagates from center toward tip of Vitis spp. buds. Incremental increase in bud volume correlates with cold deacclimation

Ice accommodation in plant tissues pinpointed by cryo-microscopy in polarised light

“…For the investigation of ice management processes in plant tissues various methods have been employed [1,3]: differential thermal analysis (DTA) [4,5], infrared imaging [6-18] and in particular infrared differential analysis (IDTA), nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) / magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) [1,[19][20][21][22][23], microscopic observations [17,20,[24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36], indirect observation by freeze-substitution EM [37], cryo-scanning electron microscopy (cryo-SEM) [32,36,38] and X-ray phase contrast imaging [3]. All these approaches differ largely in the obtained resolution, the necessary expenses, time requirements and the gained information: ice is either directly visualised or indirectly detected by measurement of freezing exotherms or assessed by the remaining amount of liquid water.…”

Ice accommodation in plant tissues pinpointed by cryo-microscopy in reflected-polarised-light

“…For the investigation of ice management processes in plant tissues various methods have been employed [1,3]: differential thermal analysis (DTA) [4,5], infrared imaging [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18] and in particular infrared differential thermal analysis (IDTA), nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR)/ magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) [1,[19][20][21][22][23], microscopic observations [17,20,[24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36], indirect observation by freeze-substitution EM [37], cryo-scanning electron microscopy (cryo-SEM) [32,36,38] and X-ray phase contrast imaging [3]. All these approaches differ largely in the obtained resolution, the necessary expenses, time requirements and the gained information: ice is either directly visualised or indirectly detected by measurement of freezing exotherms or assessed by the remaining amount of liquid water.…”