Summary
The cortical cell membranes of maize and marrow roots grown at normal, or chilling, temperatures have been studied by freeze-fracture electron microscopy. Using computer-assisted methods to analyse intramembraneous particle (IMP) frequencies, diameters and distribution, no significant trends in differences between normal and chilled roots were found. While this result does not correspond with the findings from similar experiments on microorganisms, it is compatible with contemporary ideas concerning temperature-induced phase transitions in the lipids of higher plant cell membranes. The cortical cell membranes of barley roots that had been subjected to cold osmotic shock also showed no differences from untreated roots as demonstrable in freeze-fracture replicas.
IMPs were found to cluster around plasmodesmata after chilling but the physiological significance of this, if any, remains to be investigated further.
While these negative results only indirectly help towards understanding how cell membranes react to chilling, the techniques described open the way for more detailed analyses of IMP characteristics in plant cell membranes.
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Robards, A.W., Clarkson, D.T. Effects of chilling temperatures on root cell membranes as viewed by freeze-fracture electron microscopy. Protoplasma 122, 75–85 (1984). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01279439
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01279439