Discrimination between chilling-sensitive and chilling-resistant plants based on measurements of free fatty acid accumulation and inactivation of oxygen evolution in aged chloroplasts.

The effect of aging of isolated chloroplasts of two chilling-sensitive (CS) and three chilling-resistant (CR) plants on the inactivation of oxygen evolution and accumulation of free fatty acids (FFA) was studied at 30 degrees C, pH 5.5 or 7.0, in the absence or presence of either sorbitol or NaCl. Considerable accumulation of FFA in aged chloroplasts of CS plants: bean and maize line F7-RpIII was accompanied by a marked inactivation of oxygen evolution. This relation was not, however, found in chloroplasts of CR species: pea, wheat and maize line EP1-RpI, in which the accumulation of FFA upon aging was very low whereas the decline of the rate of oxygen evolution was pronounced. In contrast to changes observed at pH 5.5, the inactivation of oxygen evolution in chloroplasts of CR species aged at pH 7.0 was dependent on the composition of the medium, especially in wheat chloroplasts. Thus, for the evaluation of chilling sensitivity based on the measurements of oxygen evolution activity solely, either aging of chloroplasts at pH 5.5 or possibly at pH 7.0 with NaCl included into the incubation medium may be recommended. It is concluded that determination of both the extent of FFA accumulation and inactivation of oxygen evolution in aged chloroplasts might be applied as chilling tolerance indexes.