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Ice Nucleation Activity in Plants: The Distribution, Characterization, and Their Roles in Cold Hardiness Mechanisms

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Survival Strategies in Extreme Cold and Desiccation

Part of the book series: Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology ((AEMB,volume 1081))

Abstract

Control of freezing in plant tissues is a key issue in cold hardiness mechanisms. Yet freeze-regulation mechanisms remain mostly unexplored. Among them, ice nucleation activity (INA) is a primary factor involved in the initiation and regulation of freezing events in plant tissues, yet the details remain poorly understood. To address this, we developed a highly reproducible assay for determining plant tissue INA and noninvasive freeze visualization tools using MRI and infrared thermography. The results of visualization studies on plant freezing behaviors and INA survey of over 600 species tissues show that (1) freezing-sensitive plants tend to have low INA in their tissues (thus tend to transiently supercool), while wintering cold-hardy species have high INA in some specialized tissues; and (2) the high INA in cold-hardy tissues likely functions as a freezing sensor to initiate freezing at warm subzero temperatures at appropriate locations and timing, resulting in the induction of tissue-/species-specific freezing behaviors (e.g., extracellular freezing, extraorgan freezing) and the freezing order among tissues: from the primary freeze to the last tissue remaining unfrozen (likely INA level dependent). The spatiotemporal distributions of tissue INA, their characterization, and functional roles are detailed. INA assay principles, anti-nucleation activity (ANA), and freeze visualization tools are also described.

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Abbreviations

ANA:

Anti-nucleation activity

DTA:

Differential thermal analysis

INA:

Ice nucleation activity

INT:

Ice nucleation temperature

IR:

Infrared

MRI:

Magnetic resonance imaging

SEM:

Scanning electron microscopy

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank Ms. Kitashima, Kitanaka, Oda, Nakatani, and Ishikawa of NIAS for their technical assistance. The authors acknowledge the facilities and the scientific and technical assistance of the National Imaging Facility, Western Sydney University Node. This was partly supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant numbers JP17H03763, JP26660030, JP23380023, and JP16380030 to M.I., IBBP Research Fund from Japan Society for the Promotion of Science to M.I., the New Technology Development Foundation (Plant Research Fund 25–23, 26-22) and Kieikai Research Foundation (2016S069) to K.K.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Imaging Frontier Center, Tokyo University of Science, Noda, Chiba, Japan

    Masaya Ishikawa

  2. Department of Forest Science, Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences, The University of Tokyo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, Japan

    Masaya Ishikawa

  3. International Patent Organism Depository, National Institute of Technology and Evaluation, Kisarazu, Chiba, Japan

    Hideyuki Yamazaki

  4. Division of Plant Sciences, National Institute of Agrobiological Sciences, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan

    Tadashi Kishimoto

  5. Department of Applied Biological Science, Tokyo University of Science, Noda, Chiba, Japan

    Hiroki Murakawa & Kazuyuki Kuchitsu

  6. Nanoscale Organisation and Dynamics Group, Western Sydney University, Penrith, NSW, Australia

    Timothy Stait-Gardner & William S. Price

Authors
  1. Masaya Ishikawa
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  2. Hideyuki Yamazaki
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  3. Tadashi Kishimoto
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  4. Hiroki Murakawa
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  5. Timothy Stait-Gardner
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  6. Kazuyuki Kuchitsu
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  7. William S. Price
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Masaya Ishikawa .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Agriculture, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan

    Mari Iwaya-Inoue

  2. Center for Biological Resources and Informatics, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Yokohama, Japan

    Minoru Sakurai

  3. United Graduate School of Agricultural Sciences and Department of Plant-biosciences, Faculty of Agriculture, Iwate University, Morioka, Japan

    Matsuo Uemura

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Ishikawa, M. et al. (2018). Ice Nucleation Activity in Plants: The Distribution, Characterization, and Their Roles in Cold Hardiness Mechanisms. In: Iwaya-Inoue, M., Sakurai, M., Uemura, M. (eds) Survival Strategies in Extreme Cold and Desiccation. Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology, vol 1081. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-1244-1_6

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