Cold hardening protects cereals from oxidative stress and necrotrophic fungal pathogenesis

Abstract

The effects of cold hardening of cereals on their cross-tolerance to treatments leading to oxidative stress were investigated. Long-term exposure to low non-freezing temperatures provided partial protection to wheat and barley plants from the damage caused by paraquat and hydrogen peroxide treatments. It also conferred resistance in two barley cultivars to the necrotic symptoms and growth of the fungal phytopathogen Pyrenophora teres f. teres. Pathogen-induced oxidative burst was also reduced in cold hardened plants. The possible roles of host-derived redox factors and other signaling components in the observed forms of cereal cross-tolerance are discussed.

Keywords

• plant
• cereal
• cold acclimation
• cross-tolerance
• oxidative stress
• pathogen
• pyrenophora teres
• necrotroph
• signaling