Temperature and Anoxic Injury in Pea Seedlings

Abstract

Anaerobic incubation of newly germinated pea seedlings under sterile conditions on moist filter paper was used to distinguish between the physical effects of excess moisture on soaking injury and the metabolic consequences of prolonged anoxia. Over a 4 d incubation period seedling death after anoxia fell as temperature was reduced from 25 to 5 °C. Internal ethanol concentrations increased with length of anaerobic incubation but fell with decrease in temperature. For all combinations of temperature with length of anaerobic incubation, seedling survival was always inversely related to ethanol concentration. An internal ethanol concentration of 60 μM appeared to be a threshold value for seedling survival as anoxic death occurred only when this concentration was exceeded.