Abstract
Tulip flower oscillation, opening and closing of petals is repeated at least two weeks from the first flowering and then petals fell down. We could produce this petal oscillation in the dark by changing the temperature accordingly. During oscillation, opposite petals apertures were proportional to water content transferred via the stem from medium, the amount was almost three times at 20C compared to at 5C. Ruthenium red, a Ca2+ channel blocker and BAPTA, a Ca2+ chelator inhibited petal opening and water movement at 20C almost by 80 and 90% respectively. But they had no any effect on petal closing and water movement at 5C. Phosphorylation of a 31 kDa membrane protein at serine and/or threonine site at mid-temperature by membrane associated CDPK, and its dephosphorylation at 5C suggested its possible involvement in the tulip petal oscillation.
