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Freeze-Induced Dehydration and Membrane Destabilization in Plants

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Water and Life

Abstract

A multitude of potentially lethal stresses occurs during a freeze/thaw cycle, including thermal, mechanical, chemical, osmotic, and possibly even electrical perturbations. Nevertheless, there is a general consensus that, in the absence of intracellular ice formation, freeze-induced cell dehydration is a primary cause of freezing injury. Although this was first proposed by Muller-Thurgau in 1886, the cellular and molecular mechanisms responsible for dehydration-induced injury have begun to be elucidated only recently (Steponkus 1984; Steponkus and Lynch 1989b).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Soil, Crop and Atmospheric Sciences, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, 14853, USA

    P. L. Steponkus & M. S. Webb

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  1. P. L. Steponkus
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  2. M. S. Webb
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Zoology, Oregon State University, 97331-2914, Corvallis, OR, USA

    George Nicholls Somero

  2. Research School of Biological Sciences, Australian National University, Box 475, 2601, Canberra, Australia

    Charles Barry Osmond

  3. Laboratory of Comparative Biology, University of Milan, Via Balzaretti 9, 20133, Milan, Italy

    Carla Liana Bolis

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© 1992 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Steponkus, P.L., Webb, M.S. (1992). Freeze-Induced Dehydration and Membrane Destabilization in Plants. In: Somero, G.N., Osmond, C.B., Bolis, C.L. (eds) Water and Life. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-76682-4_20

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-76682-4_20

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  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-76682-4

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