Expansion of common bean (<i>Phaseolus vulgaris</i> L.) crops in the northern Great Planes has been hampered due to the lack of cultivars demonstrating sufficient vitality under low temperature conditions. <i>Phaseolus angustissimus</i> L., a wild bean species, has been previously shown to possess the ability to survive low temperatures in field trials. Freezing tolerance experiments under controlled conditions resulted in P. angustissimus demonstrating a greater capacity for freezing tolerance than <i>P. vulgaris</i>, as all P. vulgaris plants studied were dead at -2.5oC while most P. angustissimus plants treated to the same conditions survived. Exposure to chilling temperatures over five days resulted in stunted growth in both species, but the cultivated bean suffered more compared to the wild bean, as noted by a marked loss in tissue water content over the first three days of chilling. Interspecific macroarray hybridizations of a cDNA library from cold acclimated Medicago sativa L. using cDNAs derived from non-chilled and three-day chilled <i>P. vulgaris</i> and <i>P. angustissimus</i> plants showed that <i>P. vulgaris</i> showed more changes in gene expression after three days of chilling. Also, <i>P. vulgaris</i> showed a general trend towards down-regulation of the transcripts sampled on the third day of chilling compared to <i>P. angustissimus</i>. RT-PCR experiments were conducted using cDNAs from plant tissues exposed to various durations of chilling to confirm the results from the macroarray experiment. These time-course RT-PCR experiments revealed expression patterns across various chilling durations in genes identified from the macroarray. Data from these experiments suggest that <i>P. vulgaris</i> and <i>P. angustissimus </i> seedlings respond differently to low temperature exposure, and that some of the changes in <i>P. angustissimus</i> transcripts monitored here may be useful for researchers in better understanding how Phaseolus species can respond better to chilling temperatures.
Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:SSU.etd-09172008-000315 |
Date | 22 September 2008 |
Creators | Woronuk, Grant Nathan |
Contributors | Coulman, Bruce, Gray, Gordon, Cota-Sanchez, Hugo, O'Connell, Mary, Parkin, Isobel, Bett, Kirstin, Vandenberg, Bert |
Publisher | University of Saskatchewan |
Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
Language | English |
Detected Language | English |
Type | text |
Format | application/pdf |
Source | http://library.usask.ca/theses/available/etd-09172008-000315/ |
Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University of Saskatchewan or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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