New Imaging Technique Leads to Better Understanding of Freezing in Plants

U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) agronomist David P. Livingston has used an imaging technique to see what happens to oats when they freeze. Oats do not grow in many northern areas in the US because of cold temperatures, and Livingston's new technique is helping scientists understand how ice forms in oats.

Livingston's technique makes high-resolution digital photos of plant tissue slices, using commercial software to create a 3-dimensional perspective to create added depth to plant structures, above and below ground. He stained frozen tissue samples of oat plants and took 186 sequential images to see how they would react to freezing temperatures in the soil.

The images revealed that when oats freeze in winter, ice forms in the roots and portions of the crown, which lies just below the soil surface and connects the roots to the stalk. The images also showed that the ice in the crown is limited to its lowest and upper level parts, apparently leaving the middle portion ice-free. The crown is critical to growth because that is where the plant generates new tissue if it survives the winter cold. Livingston has also used the technique to examine wheat, barley, rye and corn.

For more details about this research, read the magazine story at: http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/pr/2014/141027.htm.