Plant cold acclimation and freezing tolerance.

This introductory chapter provides a brief overview of plant freezing tolerance and cold acclimation and describes the basic concepts and approaches that are currently followed to investigate these phenomena. We highlight the multidisciplinary nature of these investigations and the necessity to use methodologies from different branches of science, such as ecology, genetics, physiology, biochemistry, and biophysics, to come to a complete understanding of the complex adaptive mechanisms underlying plant cold acclimation.