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Mitochondrial Activity and Ethanol Accumulation in Ice-encased Winter Cereal Seedlings ¹

^a Chemistry and Biology Research Institute, Agriculture Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

Cold-hardened dark-grown seedlings of winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) and winter rye (Secale cereale L.) are killed during total encasement in ice at –1 C at a rate related to the initial cold hardiness of the cultivars. Few plants remain alive after 7 days of encasement. Nonhardened seedlings are rapidly killed in ice. The respiratory properties of mitochondria isolated from plants after increasing periods of ice encasement decline slowly, and activity is little impaired when intact plants are about 50% killed. Electron microscopy indicates that mitochondrial structure is not disrupted until 3 weeks of ice encasement. Ethanol accumulates in hardened and nonhardened plants in ice, but at levels which are not toxic to the plants.