Spring frost is an important environmental stress that threatens the production of Prunus trees. However, little information is available regarding molecular response of these plants to the frost stress. Using high throughput sequencing, this study was conducted to identify differentially expressed miRNAs, both the conserved and the non-conserved ones, in the reproductive tissues of almond tole...

Traits of physiological thermotolerance are commonly measured in the laboratory as predictors of the field success of ectotherms at unfavourable temperatures (e.g. during harsh winters, heatwaves, or under conditions of predicted global warming). Due to being more complicated to measure, behavioural thermoregulation is less commonly studied, although both physiology and behaviour interact to ex...

St. Augustinegrass [Stenotaphrum secundatum (Walt.) Kuntze] is the least cold-hardy turfgrass species. Development of freezing-tolerant St. Augustinegrass cultivars would greatly benefit home owners in many southern states of the US. Towards this breeding goal, 7800 plants regenerated through tissue culture and 36 germplasm accessions were screened for improved freezing tolerance. Among the con...

Correlation coefficient analysis conducted on 22 triticale x bread wheat derivatives along with six checks to select true- breeding derivative(s) for future hybridization programme with tolerance to drought and cold stress conditions as well as better quality traits revealed significant correlation of grain yield with spikelets per spike, biological yield, harvest index, leaf area index. Intere...

We characterized the cold tolerance of natural populations of the Eastern subterranean termite (Reticulitermes flavipes (Kollar) [Isoptera, Rhinotermitidae]) in southwestern Ontario, Canada. We measured cold tolerance in workers from six colonies of termites established from Pelee Island in Lake Erie, and Point Pelee National Park. The mean critical thermal minimum, at which termites entered ch...

Cold acclimation in alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) plays a crucial role in cold tolerance to harsh winters. To examine the cold acclimation mechanisms in freezing-tolerant alfalfa (ZD) and freezing-sensitive alfalfa (W5), holoproteins, and low-abundance proteins (after the removal of RuBisCO) from leaves were extracted to analyze differences at the protein level. A total of 84 spots were selected...

Bactrocera invadens Drew, Tsuruta & White (Diptera: Tephritidae) is spreading throughout central Africa attacking a variety of fruit; quarantines are placed on fruit from this region that are considered hosts. The only phytosanitary treatment that is commercially available is an ionizing irradiation treatment for all Tephritidae at 150 Gy. The development of other treatments, such as heat, cold...

Arabidopsis thaliana (L.) Heynh. has been described as a freezing-tolerant species based on freezing-resistance assays. Nonetheless, this type of experiment does not discriminate between freezing-tolerance and freezing-avoidance mechanisms. The purpose of this paper was to determine which of these two freezing-resistance mechanisms is responsible for freezing resistance in A. thaliana. This was...