ABSTRACT
Solanum tuberosum, the worldwide cultivated potato, is sensitive to frosts compared to other tuber-bearing Solanum species. The inability of S. tuberosum for cold acclimation may attribute to either the unchanged Abscisic Acid (ABA) content or incapable of synthesis of proteins or both in a low temperature regime. Plants grown at the 5°C regime showed no increase in cold hardiness and remained unchanged in free ABA content when treated with mefluidide. Increases in both ABA content and cold hardiness after mefluidide treatment also were observed in other plants. From the ABA and cycloheximide experiments that were carried out with plantlets of S. tuberosum stem culture; ABA induces cold hardiness in both warm and cold temperature-grown plants. Cycloheximide, a protein synthesis inhibitor, inhibits the development of cold hardiness induced by ABA in S. tuberosum, and the inhibition occurred in both warm and cold temperature-grown plants.
