ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the mechanism of injury and cold acclimation in herbaceous plants. It also discusses the freeze-thaw process in nature, including ice nucleation, cooling rate and warming rate. The chapter provides insights into the molecular aspects of injury by freeze-thaw stress and of cold acclimation that help plants survive this stress. It explores the impact of a freeze-thaw cycle on three important cellular functions — namely photosynthesis, respiration, and membrane permeability. The chapter aims to understand the initial site of perturbation by freezing injury by investigating the sequential development of injury to these three cellular functions. A change in the physical state of membrane lipids from a flexible liquid crystalline to a solid gel structure has been proposed as one of the primary responses leading to low temperature-induced injury. This hypothesis was first proposed to explain chilling injury in chilling-sensitive plants and has been now extended to explain freezing injury.
