Regulatory gene candidates and gene expression analysis of cold acclimation in winter and spring wheat.

Freezing tolerance in plants develops through acclimation to cold by growth at low, above-freezing temperatures. Wheat is one of the most freezing-tolerant plants among major crop species and the wide range of freezing tolerance among wheat cultivars makes it an excellent model for investigation of the genetic basis of cold tolerance. Large numbers of genes are known to have altered levels of expression during the period of cold acclimation and there is keen interest in deciphering the signaling and regulatory pathways that control the changes in gene expression associated with acquired freezing tolerance.

Wheat EST resources for functional genomics of abiotic stress.

Background: Wheat is an excellent species to study freezing tolerance and other abiotic stresses. However, the sequence of the wheat genome has not been completely characterized due to its complexity and large size. To circumvent this obstacle and identify genes involved in cold acclimation and associated stresses, a large scale EST sequencing approach was undertaken by the Functional Genomics of Abiotic Stress (FGAS) project.

Transcriptome comparison of winter and spring wheat responding to low temperature.

Freezing tolerance in plants is a complex trait that occurs in many plant species during growth at low, nonfreezing temperatures, a process known as cold acclimation. This process is regulated by a multigenic system expressing broad variation in the degree of freezing tolerance among wheat cultivars. Microarray analysis is a powerful and rapid approach to gene discovery.