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Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Biology / Mark Ungerer / Elucidating the molecular basis of adaptive phenotypic variation represents a central aim in evolutionary biology. Using the model plant species Arabidopsis thaliana, I studied the intra-specific variation in freezing tolerance among natural accessions across its native range. Considerable variation in freezing tolerance among 71 selected accessions was observed both with and without a prior cold acclimation treatment, suggesting that both differences in cold-acclimation capacity and in intrinsic physiology contribute to this variation. A highly significant positive relationship was observed between freezing tolerance and latitude of origin of these accessions. This clinal pattern of variation is found to be attributable, at least in part, to relaxed purifying selection on CBF/DREB1 genes in the species’ southern range. These CBF/DREB1 genes encode transcriptional activators that play a critical role in the ability of A. thaliana plants to undergo cold acclimation and thereby achieve maximum freezing tolerance. Relative to accessions from northern regions, accessions of A. thaliana from the southern part of their geographic range exhibit significantly higher levels of nonsynonymous polymorphisms in coding regions of CBF/DREB1 genes. Relaxed selection on the CBF/DREB1s in southern accessions also has resulted in mutations in regulatory regions that lead to abrogated expression. These mutations in coding and regulatory regions compromise the function of CBF/DREB1 transcriptional activators during the cold acclimation process, as determined by reductions in rates of induction and maximum levels of expression in the downstream genes they regulate. These mutations could be selective neutral or beneficial in southern accessions depending on whether there is an allocation cost associated with cold acclimation. The fitness benefit and possible allocation cost of cold acclimation was examined in freezing and freezing-free environments using natural accessions exhibiting contrasting abilities of cold acclimation as well as transgenic CBF gene over-expression or knockdown/knockout lines. The extent to which cold acclimation benefits the plant in presence of freezing temperature is revealed, but a cost of cold acclimation wasn’t detected in the absence of freezing temperature under our experimental design, which suggests that these mutations in CBF genes in southern accessions might be neutral to natural selection.

Winter rye produces ice-modifying antifreeze proteins upon cold treatment. Two of these antifreeze proteins are members of the large, highly conserved, ??-1,3-endoglucanase family. This project was designed to identify glucanase genes that are expressed during cold acclimation, wounding, pathogen infection, drought or treatment with the phytohormones ethylene and MeJa. Additionally, a more detailed proteomic analysis was to be carried out to evaluate the glucanase content of the apoplast of cold-acclimated (CA) winter rye. Results of 2D SDS-PAGE analysis revealed that non-acclimated whole leaf protein extracts contain at least two ??-1,3-endoglucanses while CA whole leaf protein extracts contain at least three ??-1,3-endoglucanses. Subsequent 2D SDS-PAGE analysis was conducted on the apoplast extracts of NA and CA winter rye plants revealed the limitations of standard 1D SDS-PAGE. The 2-dimensional gel analysis revealed that there is a minimum of 25 proteins within the apoplast of CA winter rye, including at least 5 ??-1,3-endoglucanases. Genome walking was used to isolate cold-responsive glucanase genes. The five genes isolated were designated scGlu6, scGlu9, scGlu10, scGlu11 and scGlu12. The cis-element pattern within the promoter of each gene was evaluated using online databases of documented plant cis elements. As expected, all of the promoters contained elements associated with cold, biotic and abiotic stresses, light regulation, and development. The expression patterns predicted by the cis elements in each promoter were compared to the mRNA abundance produced by each gene as detected by semi-quantitative reverse transcriptase PCR. In most cases, the abundance of transcripts arising from each gene loosely corresponded to the expression pattern predicted by the cis elements the corresponding promoter. Transcripts of scGlu9, 10 and 11 were present in cold-treated tissues and are candidates for ??-1,3-endoglucanases with antifreeze activity. The results presented in this thesis provide additional insight into the apoplast proteome of CA winter rye plants as well as the complexity of the signals controlling the proteins that reside there. Although there are still a number of unresolved questions, this research opens new directions for future studies in the cold acclimation process in winter rye and specifically for the contribution of ?? -1,3-endoglucanses.

Cold hardiness and resistance in winter are key factors determining the geographical distribution of plants. In addition, these factors have a huge impact on harvest of cultural plants. Strawberries, which are among the most important berry plants in the world and in Lithuania, are vulnerable to cold because of unstable snow cover, which is more and more often occurring during variable wintering conditions. Insufficient resistance of strawberries in winter, absence of clear criteria, which enable to select the most resistant varieties during a shorter time than the few year period, impedes the development and introduction of new, adaptive, fertile, and of high-quality berries strawberry cultivars. The mechanisms of cold hardiness were intensively investigated using model plants. However, there is a lack of knowledge about the genetic regulation mechanisms of winterhardiness of cultural plants. For the selection of resistant to cold plants, the knowledge about plants cold acclimation and factors determining cold resistance and controlling genes is necessary. Investigating the plants under controlled conditions in vitro, it is possible to investigate the influence of individual factors on acclimation and cold hardiness by disassociating from the influence of many different factors, which is unavoidable under natural conditions. The cold acclimation and cold hardiness of strawberries are important not only for breeding. Preservation of plant genetic resources for future... [to full text] / Atsparumas šalčiui ir ištvermingumas žiemą – pagrindiniai veiksniai, lemiantys augalų geografinį pasiskirstymą. Be to, šie veiksniai turi didžiulę įtaką kultūrinių augalų derlingumui. Braškės, kurios yra tarp svarbiausių uoginių augalų pasaulyje ir Lietuvoje, stipriai pašąla esant nepastoviai sniego dangai, vis dažniau pasitaikančiomis permainingomis žiemojimo sąlygomis. Nepakankamas braškių ištvermingumas žiemą, aiškių kriterijų, kurie leistų per trumpesnį nei kelių metų laikotarpį atrinkti ištvermingas veisles nebuvimas, apsunkina naujų, adaptyvių, derlingų, kokybiškomis uogomis, braškių veislių sukūrimą ir introdukciją. Atsparumo šalčiui mechanizmai intensyviai tirti naudojant modelinius augalus, tačiau žinių apie žiemojančių kultūrinių augalų, kurių įvairovė labai didelė, ištvermingumo žiemą mechanizmus ir jo genetinį reguliavimą labai trūksta. Atsparių šalčiui augalų atrankai vykdyti reikalingos žinios apie augalų užsigrūdinimą, apie atsparumą šalčiui lemiančius veiksnius ir juos kontroliuojančius genus. Tiriant augalus kontroliuojamomis sąlygomis in vitro, galima ištirti atskirų veiksnių įtaką užsigrūdinimui ir atsparumui šalčiui, atsiribojant nuo, neišvengiamo natūraliomis sąlygomis, daugelio įvairių veiksnių poveikio. Braškių užsigrūdinimas ir atsparumas šalčiui svarbūs ne vien tik atrankai. Genetinių išteklių išsaugojimas ateities kartoms - svarbus šiuolaikinės biologijos uždavinys. Didelių kolekcijų išsaugojimą palengvina ir sąnaudas sumažina, augalų laikymas... [toliau žr. visą tekstą]

and keywords The aim of this work was to evaluate the effect on rat myocardial β-adrenergic system of short-term (10 hours and 3 days) and long-term (5 weeks) cold exposure of rats with possible subsequent two-week recovery at normal temperature. The subtypes of β-adrenergic receptors (β-AR), their cognate G-proteins and adenylate cyclase have been characterized. β-AR are important components of cardiac regulatory mechanisms. They are involved in stimulating G-protein (Gs) and adenylate cyclase to increase cardiac contractility and frequency during stressful situations, including cold exposure. Heart tissue contains all three β-AR subtypes (β1-AR, β2-AR, β3-AR). While β1-AR couples with only Gs, β2-AR and β3-AR interact with the inhibitory G-protein (Gi). Electrophoresis and Western blotting showed a significant increase in β1-AR after a three-day exposure to cold. There was also a significant increase in β3-AR concentrations after a five-week cold exposure and this increase lasted for two weeks. There were no significant changes in the amnounts of β-AR cognate G-proteins (Gαs, Gβ, Gαi1/2 a Gαi3). In contrast, expression of adenylyl cyclase isoform V and VI significantly decreased during short-term exposure to cold. Using the saturation experiment with the β-antagonist [3H]CGP 12177, β-AR were...

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Acute cold exposure is a significant stressor activating heat production by shivering after the prolonged exposure cellular oxidative stress increases. Chronic exposure to cold lasting at least 2 weeks leads to the development of cold acclimatization. The main thermogenic role is taken over by non-shivering thermogenesis taking place in brown adipose tissue, which significantly increases its weight due to cold. Cardiac hypertrophy, hypertension and impaired renal function are frequently observed pathologies of acclimatization at 4-5 řC. Our laboratory recently introduced a model of mild chronic cold acclimatization at 8 řC, during which no damage to the heart or kidneys occurs and has proven cardioprotective effect on reducing infarct size. Hence, the influence of this cold acclimatization model on the other cellular and molecular processes needs to be investigated. The cardioprotective effect of cold acclimatization includes changes in β-AR signaling, activation of anti-apoptotic pathways or augmentation of the antioxidant system. The aim of this thesis was to investigate the effect of cold acclimation and subsequent reacclimation on proteins regulating Ca2+ levels in the rat heart (SERCA2 and phospholamban) and on the stimulation of regulatory proteins β-arrestin 1/2 and protein kinase PDPK1. The...

Cold exposure elicits a thermoregulatory response in an organism. If the cold stimulus is sufficient, there is increased heat generation by shivering thermogenesis. Under prolonged action of the cold stimulus, shivering thermogenesis is replaced by non-shivering thermogenesis. Non-shivering thermogenesis in the rat takes place predominantly in brown adipose tissue (BAT), where the uncoupling protein 1 (UCP1) is activated in mitochondria under the control of adrenergic signaling. The activity of UCP1 is crucial for heat production. The coactivator PGC-1α plays an important role in mitochondrial biogenesis and in the energy metabolism of BAT and heart, and its function is associated with cardioprotection. Recently, the cardioprotective effects of mild cold adaptation at 8±1 řC were discovered in our laboratory, which reduced the size of ischemia-reperfusion injury without negative side effects. However, the molecular nature of the events induced by adaptation to mild cold is unknown neither in BAT nor in the heart itself. Therefore, the aims of the thesis were 1) to characterize the development of BAT at the level of expression of selected proteins and mitochondrial markers during acute cold exposure and chronic cold adaptation with subsequent recovery and 2) to determine the role of PGC-1α and...

The PhD thesis is focused on a transcriptomics-based comparison of barley cultivars differing with respect to their low temperature acclimation capacity, with a particular focus on genes transcribed in the leaf and crown. The crown was of interest because of its importance for the winter survival of the plant. To involve both the first and the second phase of hardening, the test plants were exposed first to +3řC for 21 days, followed by - 3řC for one day. Freezing damage was assessed by measuring electrolyte leakage (Papers 2 and 3), using a modified version of a protocol developed by Prášil and Zámečník (1998). The same protocol was adapted to evaluate crown regrowth (Paper 2); for this purpose, the plants were cooled, then replanted and cut above the crown, and their survival rate calculated over the following week. Each RNA sample was queried by hybridization to an Affymetrix 22 K Barley1 GeneChip Genome Array (Close et al. 2004). The data were statistically analysed with the help of the software packages R, MAS 5.0 (Ihaka & Gentleman 1996) (Papers 2 and 3), Gene Spring GX 7.3 (Agilent Technologies, Santa Clara CA) and MapMan (Thimm et al. 2004; Usadel et al. 2005) (Paper 2), the "Self-Organizing Maps" algorithm (Kohonen et al. 1996) (Paper 3) and MIPS FunCat (Ruepp et al. 2004) (Paper 2). Paper...