Abstract
The exposure of plants to subzero temperatures results in the development of extracellular ice crystals which bring the strong dehydration upon the plasma membrane (PM) in plant cells. Many plants, which are grown in the temperate and frigid zone, cold-acclimate in non-freezing temperatures, acquiring the freezing tolerance presumably caused by the alternation of lipid composition in PM. Although the composition of PM proteins alters during cold acclimation, its contribution to the freezing tolerance has not been unclear. Using proteomics technique, we determined PM proteins changing quantitatively during cold acclimation in Arabidopsis thaliana, and then identified a synaptotagmin-like protein, AtSytA, as a high homologous protein with the synaptotagmin protein family in animal cells, which is involved in the repair of the plasma membrane disrupted by mechanical stress. Here, we will report the results from the reverse-genetical analysis of AtSytA in Arabidopsis for the contribution of the freezing tolerance.
