Marcin Rapacz | University of Agriculture in Krakow (original) (raw)

Papers by Marcin Rapacz

E3S Web of Conferences, 2013

The chlorophyll fluorescence imaging technique is a valuable tool to study the impact of heavy me... more The chlorophyll fluorescence imaging technique is a valuable tool to study the impact of heavy metal stress in plants. The aim of this paper was to investigate the influence of Cd on photosynthetic apparatus of white cabbage (Brassica oleracea subsp. capitata f. alba) plants. Two cabbage cultivars 'Ditmarska Najwcześniejsza' ('DN'; early) and 'Amager Polana' ('AP'; late) were used. Cd was applied before planting seedlings (10 mg Cd kg-1 DM of soil).. Measurements were performed at the 3rd leaf after 2 weeks of planting. The level of Cd-induced stress to plants was estimated by chlorophyll (Chl) content (photometrically) and analyses of images and numeric values of the major fluorescence parameters of Chl (Chl fluorescence imaging system FluorCam). Cd negatively affected the chlorophyll content and Fv/Fm, Fv'/Fm', ɸ PSII and qP in leaves of early cultivar of white cabbage. However, in the case of late cv. we did not observe such distinct changes. It suggests that late cultivars. are more resistant to Cd than the early ones. Considering methodological aspect of the study, Chl fluorescence imaging can better reveal some alterations within the leaf, because numeric values of specific parameters, which are the averaged data collected from the whole leaf, cannot reflect the tissue specificity. Abbreviations: HM-heavy metal, Cd-cadmium, Chl-chlorophyll, Fv/Fm-photochemical efficiency of PSII in the dark-adapted state, F'v'/F'm'-PSII maximum efficiency, ɸ PSII-quantum efficiency of PSII electron transport, NPQ-nonphotochemical quenching of maximal Chl fluorescence, qP-photochemical quenching coefficient.

Under natural conditions, the defense responses of plants exposed to combined abiotic and biotic ... more Under natural conditions, the defense responses of plants exposed to combined abiotic and biotic stress factors, which can randomly interact with each other, are in many aspects different from the response induced by an individual stress. Predicted climatic changes through affecting these simultaneously occurring interactions might change the microclimate surrounding plants, plants’ susceptibility, the range of host microorganisms (i.e., symbionts or pathogens), and their simultaneous interaction with plants. The influence of climate change on interactions between environmental stresses and plants can lead to positive or negative impacts of one stress on the others and cause changes in strategies adopted by plants—either negative (i.e., susceptibility) or positive (i.e., tolerance)—thus causing modifications of primary and secondary metabolism of plants. Primary metabolism plays a key role in plants’ adaptive/defense response through the influence on the modulation of secondary meta...

Under natural conditions, the defense responses of plants exposed to combined abiotic and biotic ... more Under natural conditions, the defense responses of plants exposed to combined abiotic and biotic stress factors, which can randomly interact with each other, are in many aspects different from the response induced by an individual stress. Predicted climatic changes through affecting these simultaneously occurring interactions might change the microclimate surrounding plants, plants’ susceptibility, the range of host microorganisms (i.e., symbionts or pathogens), and their simultaneous interaction with plants. The influence of climate change on interactions between environmental stresses and plants can lead to positive or negative impacts of one stress on the others and cause changes in strategies adopted by plants—either negative (i.e., susceptibility) or positive (i.e., tolerance)—thus causing modifications of primary and secondary metabolism of plants. Primary metabolism plays a key role in plants’ adaptive/defense response through the influence on the modulation of secondary meta...

Journal of Plant Physiology, 2019

Diversity arrays technology (DArT) marker sequences for barley were used for identifying new pote... more Diversity arrays technology (DArT) marker sequences for barley were used for identifying new potential candidate genes for freezing tolerance (FT). We used quantitative trait loci (QTL) genetic linkage maps for FT and photosynthetic acclimation to cold for six- and two-row barley populations, and a set of 20 DArT markers obtained using the association mapping of parameters for photosynthetic acclimation to low temperatures in barley for the bioinformatics analyses. Several nucleotide and amino acid sequence, annotation databases and associated algorithms were used to identify the similarities of six of the marker sequences to potential genes involved in plant low temperature response. Gene ontology (GO) annotations based on similarities to database sequences were assigned to these marker sequences, and indicated potential involvement in signal transduction pathways in response to stress factors and epigenetic processes, as well as auxin transport mechanisms. Furthermore, relative gene expressions for three of six of new identified genes (Hv.ATPase, Hv.DDM1, and Hv.BIG) were assessed within four barley genotypes of different FT. A physiological assessment of FT was conducted based on plant survival rates in two field-laboratory and one laboratory experiments. The results suggested that plant survival rate after freezing but not the degree of freezing-induced leaf damage between the tested accessions can be correlated with the degree of low-temperature downregulation of the studied candidate genes, which encoded proteins involved in the control of plant growth and development. Additionally, candidate genes for qRT-PCR suitable for the analysis of cold acclimation response in barley were suggested after validation.

Plant Science, 2018

Insight into cellular proteome of Lolium multiflorum/Festuca arundinacea introgression forms to d... more Insight into cellular proteome of Lolium multiflorum/Festuca arundinacea introgression forms to decipher crucial mechanisms of cold acclimation in forage grasses, Plant Science

Plant Science, 2017

Highlights  freezing tolerance after cold acclimation and deacclimation are partially independen... more Highlights  freezing tolerance after cold acclimation and deacclimation are partially independent  freezing tolerance after deacclimation may be important for winter survival  deacclimation events affecting winter survival can occur even in early winter  chlorophyll fluorescence based studies may indicate deacclimation level

Plant Physiology, 2015

Linker (H1) histones play critical roles in chromatin compaction in higher eukaryotes. They are a... more Linker (H1) histones play critical roles in chromatin compaction in higher eukaryotes. They are also the most variable of the histones, with numerous nonallelic variants cooccurring in the same cell. Plants contain a distinct subclass of minor H1 variants that are induced by drought and abscisic acid and have been implicated in mediating adaptive responses to stress. However, how these variants facilitate adaptation remains poorly understood. Here, we show that the single Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) stressinducible variant H1.3 occurs in plants in two separate and most likely autonomous pools: a constitutive guard cell-specific pool and a facultative environmentally controlled pool localized in other tissues. Physiological and transcriptomic analyses of h1.3 null mutants demonstrate that H1.3 is required for both proper stomatal functioning under normal growth conditions and adaptive developmental responses to combined light and water deficiency. Using fluorescence recovery after photobleaching analysis, we show that H1.3 has superfast chromatin dynamics, and in contrast to the main Arabidopsis H1 variants H1.1 and H1.2, it has no stable bound fraction. The results of global occupancy studies demonstrate that, while H1.3 has the same overall binding properties as the main H1 variants, including predominant heterochromatin localization, it differs from them in its preferences for chromatin regions with epigenetic signatures of active and repressed transcription. We also show that H1.3 is required for a substantial part of DNA methylation associated with environmental stress, suggesting that the likely mechanism underlying H1.3 function may be the facilitation of chromatin accessibility by direct competition with the main H1 variants.

Journal of Agronomy and Crop Science, 2008

Euphytica, 2010

Associations of PCR markers with freezing tolerance and acclimation of photosynthetic apparatus t... more Associations of PCR markers with freezing tolerance and acclimation of photosynthetic apparatus to cold were tested on 28 winter barley cultivars and advanced breeding forms to select alleles for practical application in marker assisted selection (MAS). We found significant associations between freezing tolerance evaluated with field-laboratory method (FLM) and markers located on 5H chromosome in region of gene Fr-H2 (bin9-10: Xbmag812, Xmwg2230) and region of gene Fr-H1 (bin11: Xmwg514, HvBM5, Xmwg644). Additionally, significant associations with photochemical quenching of chlorophyll a fluorescence (q P) were found for PCR markers Xpsr115 and Xmwg2062. In our study variation in the promoter region of Vrn-H1 (HvBM5) was directly connected with freezing tolerance of plants partially de-acclimated in the field. The results obtained here showed that different loci of freezing tolerance may play role in variable selection pressure of winter conditions.

Humphreys, M. W., Zwierzykowski, Z., Lesniewska-Bocianowska, A., Gasior, D., Rapacz, M. (2004). A... more Humphreys, M. W., Zwierzykowski, Z., Lesniewska-Bocianowska, A., Gasior, D., Rapacz, M. (2004). Androgenesis of Lolium x Festuca amphiploid cultivars in order to enhance gene expression for abiotic stress resistance. Anales de la Asociacion de Palinologos de Lengua Espana, 14, 33. Proceedings of the 11th International Palynological Congress, Granada, Spain, 5-9 July 2004.

International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 2021

Plant overwintering may be affected in the future by climate change. Low-temperature waterlogging... more Plant overwintering may be affected in the future by climate change. Low-temperature waterlogging, associated with a predicted increase in rainfall during autumn and winter, can affect freezing tolerance, which is the main component of winter hardiness. The aim of this study was to elucidate the mechanism of change in freezing tolerance caused by low-temperature waterlogging in Lolium perenne, a cool-season grass that is well adapted to a cold climate. The work included: (i) a freezing tolerance test (plant regrowth after freezing); (ii) analysis of plant phytohormones production (abscisic acid [ABA] content and ethylene emission); (iii) measurement of leaf water content and stomatal conductance; (iv) carbohydrate analysis; and (v) analysis of Aco1, ABF2, and FT1 transcript accumulation. Freezing tolerance may be improved as a result of cold waterlogging. The mechanism of this change is reliant on multifaceted actions of phytohormones and carbohydrates, whereas ethylene may countera...

International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 2021

Mechanisms involved in the de-acclimation of herbaceous plants caused by warm periods during wint... more Mechanisms involved in the de-acclimation of herbaceous plants caused by warm periods during winter are poorly understood. This study identifies the genes associated with this mechanism in winter barley. Seedlings of eight accessions (four tolerant and four susceptible to de-acclimation cultivars and advanced breeding lines) were cold acclimated for three weeks and de-acclimated at 12 °C/5 °C (day/night) for one week. We performed differential expression analysis using RNA sequencing. In addition, reverse-transcription quantitative real-time PCR and enzyme activity analyses were used to investigate changes in the expression of selected genes. The number of transcripts with accumulation level changed in opposite directions during acclimation and de-acclimation was much lower than the number of transcripts with level changed exclusively during one of these processes. The de-acclimation-susceptible accessions showed changes in the expression of a higher number of functionally diverse g...

Kosmala, A., Skibinska, M., Zwierzykowski, Z., Humphreys, M. W., Rapacz, M., Joks, W. (2003). Int... more Kosmala, A., Skibinska, M., Zwierzykowski, Z., Humphreys, M. W., Rapacz, M., Joks, W. (2003). Introgression of genes for abiotic stress resistance from Festuca pratensis and F. arundinacea into Lolium multiflorum germplasm. Vortage fur Pflanzenzuchtung, Proceedings 24th EUCARPIA Fodder Crops and Amenity Grasses Section Meeting, Braunschweig, Germany, 22-26 September 2002, 59, 225-231

International Journal of Molecular Sciences

Impact of photosynthetic and antioxidant capacities on drought tolerance of two closely related f... more Impact of photosynthetic and antioxidant capacities on drought tolerance of two closely related forage grasses, Festuca arundinacea and Festuca glaucescens, was deciphered. Within each species, two genotypes distinct in drought tolerance were subjected to a short-term drought, followed by a subsequent re-watering. The studies were focused on: (i) analysis of plant physiological performance, including: water uptake, abscisic acid (ABA) content, membrane integrity, gas exchange, and relative water content in leaf tissue; (ii) analysis of plant photosynthetic capacity (chlorophyll fluorescence; gene expression, protein accumulation, and activity of selected enzymes of the Calvin cycle); and (iii) analysis of plant antioxidant capacity (reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation; gene expression, protein accumulation and activity of selected enzymes). Though, F. arundinacea and F. glaucescens revealed different strategies in water uptake, and partially also in ABA signaling, their physiol...

Plant Ecophysiology and Adaptation under Climate Change: Mechanisms and Perspectives I: General Consequences and Plant Responses, 2020

Under natural conditions, the defense responses of plants exposed to combined abiotic and biotic ... more Under natural conditions, the defense responses of plants exposed to combined abiotic and biotic stress factors, which can randomly interact with each other, are in many aspects different from the response induced by an individual stress. Predicted climatic changes through affecting these simultaneously occurring interactions might change the microclimate surrounding plants, plants’ susceptibility, the range of host microorganisms (i.e., symbionts or pathogens), and their simultaneous interaction with plants. The influence of climate change on interactions between environmental stresses and plants can lead to positive or negative impacts of one stress on the others and cause changes in strategies adopted by plants—either negative (i.e., susceptibility) or positive (i.e., tolerance)—thus causing modifications of primary and secondary metabolism of plants. Primary metabolism plays a key role in plants’ adaptive/defense response through the influence on the modulation of secondary meta...

Biuletyn Instytutu Hodowli i Aklimatyzacji Roślin

Photosynthesis Research

Acclimation of photosynthetic apparatus to variable environmental conditions is an important comp... more Acclimation of photosynthetic apparatus to variable environmental conditions is an important component of tolerance to dehydration stresses, including salinity. The present study deals with the research on alterations in chloroplast proteome of the forage grasses. Based on chlorophyll fluorescence parameters, two genotypes of a model grass species—Festuca arundinacea with distinct levels of salinity tolerance: low salt tolerant (LST) and high salt tolerant (HST), were selected. Next, two-dimensional electrophoresis and mass spectrometry were applied under both control and salt stress conditions to identify proteins accumulated differentially between these two genotypes. The physiological analysis revealed that under NaCl treatment the studied plants differed in photosystem II activity, water content, and ion accumulation. The differentially accumulated proteins included ATPase B, ATP synthase, ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase large and small subunits, cytochrome b6-f complex iron-sulfur subunit, oxygen-evolving enhancer proteins (OEE), OEE1 and OEE2, plastidic fructose-bisphosphate aldolase (pFBA), and lipocalin. A higher level of lipocalin, potentially involved in prevention of lipid peroxidation under stress, was also observed in the HST genotype. Our physiological and proteomic results performed for the first time on the species of forage grasses clearly showed that chloroplast metabolism adjustment could be a crucial factor in developing salinity tolerance.

Procedia Environmental Sciences, 2015

Proceedings of the International Conference on Computer Vision Theory and Applications, 2010

International Journal of Molecular Sciences

Lolium multiflorum/Festuca arundinacea introgression forms have been proved several times to be g... more Lolium multiflorum/Festuca arundinacea introgression forms have been proved several times to be good models to identify key components of grass metabolism involved in the mechanisms of tolerance to water deficit. Here, for the first time, a relationship between photosynthetic and antioxidant capacities with respect to drought tolerance of these forms was analyzed in detail. Two closely related L. multiflorum/F. arundinacea introgression forms distinct in their ability to re-grow after cessation of prolonged water deficit in the field were selected and subjected to short-term drought in pots to dissect precisely mechanisms of drought tolerance in this group of plants. The studies revealed that the form with higher drought tolerance was characterized by earlier and higher accumulation of abscisic acid, more stable cellular membranes, and more balanced reactive oxygen species metabolism associated with a higher capacity of the antioxidant system under drought conditions. On the other h...

E3S Web of Conferences, 2013

The chlorophyll fluorescence imaging technique is a valuable tool to study the impact of heavy me... more The chlorophyll fluorescence imaging technique is a valuable tool to study the impact of heavy metal stress in plants. The aim of this paper was to investigate the influence of Cd on photosynthetic apparatus of white cabbage (Brassica oleracea subsp. capitata f. alba) plants. Two cabbage cultivars 'Ditmarska Najwcześniejsza' ('DN'; early) and 'Amager Polana' ('AP'; late) were used. Cd was applied before planting seedlings (10 mg Cd kg-1 DM of soil).. Measurements were performed at the 3rd leaf after 2 weeks of planting. The level of Cd-induced stress to plants was estimated by chlorophyll (Chl) content (photometrically) and analyses of images and numeric values of the major fluorescence parameters of Chl (Chl fluorescence imaging system FluorCam). Cd negatively affected the chlorophyll content and Fv/Fm, Fv'/Fm', ɸ PSII and qP in leaves of early cultivar of white cabbage. However, in the case of late cv. we did not observe such distinct changes. It suggests that late cultivars. are more resistant to Cd than the early ones. Considering methodological aspect of the study, Chl fluorescence imaging can better reveal some alterations within the leaf, because numeric values of specific parameters, which are the averaged data collected from the whole leaf, cannot reflect the tissue specificity. Abbreviations: HM-heavy metal, Cd-cadmium, Chl-chlorophyll, Fv/Fm-photochemical efficiency of PSII in the dark-adapted state, F'v'/F'm'-PSII maximum efficiency, ɸ PSII-quantum efficiency of PSII electron transport, NPQ-nonphotochemical quenching of maximal Chl fluorescence, qP-photochemical quenching coefficient.

Under natural conditions, the defense responses of plants exposed to combined abiotic and biotic ... more Under natural conditions, the defense responses of plants exposed to combined abiotic and biotic stress factors, which can randomly interact with each other, are in many aspects different from the response induced by an individual stress. Predicted climatic changes through affecting these simultaneously occurring interactions might change the microclimate surrounding plants, plants’ susceptibility, the range of host microorganisms (i.e., symbionts or pathogens), and their simultaneous interaction with plants. The influence of climate change on interactions between environmental stresses and plants can lead to positive or negative impacts of one stress on the others and cause changes in strategies adopted by plants—either negative (i.e., susceptibility) or positive (i.e., tolerance)—thus causing modifications of primary and secondary metabolism of plants. Primary metabolism plays a key role in plants’ adaptive/defense response through the influence on the modulation of secondary meta...

Under natural conditions, the defense responses of plants exposed to combined abiotic and biotic ... more Under natural conditions, the defense responses of plants exposed to combined abiotic and biotic stress factors, which can randomly interact with each other, are in many aspects different from the response induced by an individual stress. Predicted climatic changes through affecting these simultaneously occurring interactions might change the microclimate surrounding plants, plants’ susceptibility, the range of host microorganisms (i.e., symbionts or pathogens), and their simultaneous interaction with plants. The influence of climate change on interactions between environmental stresses and plants can lead to positive or negative impacts of one stress on the others and cause changes in strategies adopted by plants—either negative (i.e., susceptibility) or positive (i.e., tolerance)—thus causing modifications of primary and secondary metabolism of plants. Primary metabolism plays a key role in plants’ adaptive/defense response through the influence on the modulation of secondary meta...

Journal of Plant Physiology, 2019

Diversity arrays technology (DArT) marker sequences for barley were used for identifying new pote... more Diversity arrays technology (DArT) marker sequences for barley were used for identifying new potential candidate genes for freezing tolerance (FT). We used quantitative trait loci (QTL) genetic linkage maps for FT and photosynthetic acclimation to cold for six- and two-row barley populations, and a set of 20 DArT markers obtained using the association mapping of parameters for photosynthetic acclimation to low temperatures in barley for the bioinformatics analyses. Several nucleotide and amino acid sequence, annotation databases and associated algorithms were used to identify the similarities of six of the marker sequences to potential genes involved in plant low temperature response. Gene ontology (GO) annotations based on similarities to database sequences were assigned to these marker sequences, and indicated potential involvement in signal transduction pathways in response to stress factors and epigenetic processes, as well as auxin transport mechanisms. Furthermore, relative gene expressions for three of six of new identified genes (Hv.ATPase, Hv.DDM1, and Hv.BIG) were assessed within four barley genotypes of different FT. A physiological assessment of FT was conducted based on plant survival rates in two field-laboratory and one laboratory experiments. The results suggested that plant survival rate after freezing but not the degree of freezing-induced leaf damage between the tested accessions can be correlated with the degree of low-temperature downregulation of the studied candidate genes, which encoded proteins involved in the control of plant growth and development. Additionally, candidate genes for qRT-PCR suitable for the analysis of cold acclimation response in barley were suggested after validation.

Plant Science, 2018

Insight into cellular proteome of Lolium multiflorum/Festuca arundinacea introgression forms to d... more Insight into cellular proteome of Lolium multiflorum/Festuca arundinacea introgression forms to decipher crucial mechanisms of cold acclimation in forage grasses, Plant Science

Plant Science, 2017

Highlights  freezing tolerance after cold acclimation and deacclimation are partially independen... more Highlights  freezing tolerance after cold acclimation and deacclimation are partially independent  freezing tolerance after deacclimation may be important for winter survival  deacclimation events affecting winter survival can occur even in early winter  chlorophyll fluorescence based studies may indicate deacclimation level

Plant Physiology, 2015

Linker (H1) histones play critical roles in chromatin compaction in higher eukaryotes. They are a... more Linker (H1) histones play critical roles in chromatin compaction in higher eukaryotes. They are also the most variable of the histones, with numerous nonallelic variants cooccurring in the same cell. Plants contain a distinct subclass of minor H1 variants that are induced by drought and abscisic acid and have been implicated in mediating adaptive responses to stress. However, how these variants facilitate adaptation remains poorly understood. Here, we show that the single Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) stressinducible variant H1.3 occurs in plants in two separate and most likely autonomous pools: a constitutive guard cell-specific pool and a facultative environmentally controlled pool localized in other tissues. Physiological and transcriptomic analyses of h1.3 null mutants demonstrate that H1.3 is required for both proper stomatal functioning under normal growth conditions and adaptive developmental responses to combined light and water deficiency. Using fluorescence recovery after photobleaching analysis, we show that H1.3 has superfast chromatin dynamics, and in contrast to the main Arabidopsis H1 variants H1.1 and H1.2, it has no stable bound fraction. The results of global occupancy studies demonstrate that, while H1.3 has the same overall binding properties as the main H1 variants, including predominant heterochromatin localization, it differs from them in its preferences for chromatin regions with epigenetic signatures of active and repressed transcription. We also show that H1.3 is required for a substantial part of DNA methylation associated with environmental stress, suggesting that the likely mechanism underlying H1.3 function may be the facilitation of chromatin accessibility by direct competition with the main H1 variants.

Journal of Agronomy and Crop Science, 2008

Euphytica, 2010

Associations of PCR markers with freezing tolerance and acclimation of photosynthetic apparatus t... more Associations of PCR markers with freezing tolerance and acclimation of photosynthetic apparatus to cold were tested on 28 winter barley cultivars and advanced breeding forms to select alleles for practical application in marker assisted selection (MAS). We found significant associations between freezing tolerance evaluated with field-laboratory method (FLM) and markers located on 5H chromosome in region of gene Fr-H2 (bin9-10: Xbmag812, Xmwg2230) and region of gene Fr-H1 (bin11: Xmwg514, HvBM5, Xmwg644). Additionally, significant associations with photochemical quenching of chlorophyll a fluorescence (q P) were found for PCR markers Xpsr115 and Xmwg2062. In our study variation in the promoter region of Vrn-H1 (HvBM5) was directly connected with freezing tolerance of plants partially de-acclimated in the field. The results obtained here showed that different loci of freezing tolerance may play role in variable selection pressure of winter conditions.

Humphreys, M. W., Zwierzykowski, Z., Lesniewska-Bocianowska, A., Gasior, D., Rapacz, M. (2004). A... more Humphreys, M. W., Zwierzykowski, Z., Lesniewska-Bocianowska, A., Gasior, D., Rapacz, M. (2004). Androgenesis of Lolium x Festuca amphiploid cultivars in order to enhance gene expression for abiotic stress resistance. Anales de la Asociacion de Palinologos de Lengua Espana, 14, 33. Proceedings of the 11th International Palynological Congress, Granada, Spain, 5-9 July 2004.

International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 2021

Plant overwintering may be affected in the future by climate change. Low-temperature waterlogging... more Plant overwintering may be affected in the future by climate change. Low-temperature waterlogging, associated with a predicted increase in rainfall during autumn and winter, can affect freezing tolerance, which is the main component of winter hardiness. The aim of this study was to elucidate the mechanism of change in freezing tolerance caused by low-temperature waterlogging in Lolium perenne, a cool-season grass that is well adapted to a cold climate. The work included: (i) a freezing tolerance test (plant regrowth after freezing); (ii) analysis of plant phytohormones production (abscisic acid [ABA] content and ethylene emission); (iii) measurement of leaf water content and stomatal conductance; (iv) carbohydrate analysis; and (v) analysis of Aco1, ABF2, and FT1 transcript accumulation. Freezing tolerance may be improved as a result of cold waterlogging. The mechanism of this change is reliant on multifaceted actions of phytohormones and carbohydrates, whereas ethylene may countera...

International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 2021

Mechanisms involved in the de-acclimation of herbaceous plants caused by warm periods during wint... more Mechanisms involved in the de-acclimation of herbaceous plants caused by warm periods during winter are poorly understood. This study identifies the genes associated with this mechanism in winter barley. Seedlings of eight accessions (four tolerant and four susceptible to de-acclimation cultivars and advanced breeding lines) were cold acclimated for three weeks and de-acclimated at 12 °C/5 °C (day/night) for one week. We performed differential expression analysis using RNA sequencing. In addition, reverse-transcription quantitative real-time PCR and enzyme activity analyses were used to investigate changes in the expression of selected genes. The number of transcripts with accumulation level changed in opposite directions during acclimation and de-acclimation was much lower than the number of transcripts with level changed exclusively during one of these processes. The de-acclimation-susceptible accessions showed changes in the expression of a higher number of functionally diverse g...

Kosmala, A., Skibinska, M., Zwierzykowski, Z., Humphreys, M. W., Rapacz, M., Joks, W. (2003). Int... more Kosmala, A., Skibinska, M., Zwierzykowski, Z., Humphreys, M. W., Rapacz, M., Joks, W. (2003). Introgression of genes for abiotic stress resistance from Festuca pratensis and F. arundinacea into Lolium multiflorum germplasm. Vortage fur Pflanzenzuchtung, Proceedings 24th EUCARPIA Fodder Crops and Amenity Grasses Section Meeting, Braunschweig, Germany, 22-26 September 2002, 59, 225-231

International Journal of Molecular Sciences

Impact of photosynthetic and antioxidant capacities on drought tolerance of two closely related f... more Impact of photosynthetic and antioxidant capacities on drought tolerance of two closely related forage grasses, Festuca arundinacea and Festuca glaucescens, was deciphered. Within each species, two genotypes distinct in drought tolerance were subjected to a short-term drought, followed by a subsequent re-watering. The studies were focused on: (i) analysis of plant physiological performance, including: water uptake, abscisic acid (ABA) content, membrane integrity, gas exchange, and relative water content in leaf tissue; (ii) analysis of plant photosynthetic capacity (chlorophyll fluorescence; gene expression, protein accumulation, and activity of selected enzymes of the Calvin cycle); and (iii) analysis of plant antioxidant capacity (reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation; gene expression, protein accumulation and activity of selected enzymes). Though, F. arundinacea and F. glaucescens revealed different strategies in water uptake, and partially also in ABA signaling, their physiol...

Plant Ecophysiology and Adaptation under Climate Change: Mechanisms and Perspectives I: General Consequences and Plant Responses, 2020

Under natural conditions, the defense responses of plants exposed to combined abiotic and biotic ... more Under natural conditions, the defense responses of plants exposed to combined abiotic and biotic stress factors, which can randomly interact with each other, are in many aspects different from the response induced by an individual stress. Predicted climatic changes through affecting these simultaneously occurring interactions might change the microclimate surrounding plants, plants’ susceptibility, the range of host microorganisms (i.e., symbionts or pathogens), and their simultaneous interaction with plants. The influence of climate change on interactions between environmental stresses and plants can lead to positive or negative impacts of one stress on the others and cause changes in strategies adopted by plants—either negative (i.e., susceptibility) or positive (i.e., tolerance)—thus causing modifications of primary and secondary metabolism of plants. Primary metabolism plays a key role in plants’ adaptive/defense response through the influence on the modulation of secondary meta...

Biuletyn Instytutu Hodowli i Aklimatyzacji Roślin

Photosynthesis Research

Acclimation of photosynthetic apparatus to variable environmental conditions is an important comp... more Acclimation of photosynthetic apparatus to variable environmental conditions is an important component of tolerance to dehydration stresses, including salinity. The present study deals with the research on alterations in chloroplast proteome of the forage grasses. Based on chlorophyll fluorescence parameters, two genotypes of a model grass species—Festuca arundinacea with distinct levels of salinity tolerance: low salt tolerant (LST) and high salt tolerant (HST), were selected. Next, two-dimensional electrophoresis and mass spectrometry were applied under both control and salt stress conditions to identify proteins accumulated differentially between these two genotypes. The physiological analysis revealed that under NaCl treatment the studied plants differed in photosystem II activity, water content, and ion accumulation. The differentially accumulated proteins included ATPase B, ATP synthase, ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase large and small subunits, cytochrome b6-f complex iron-sulfur subunit, oxygen-evolving enhancer proteins (OEE), OEE1 and OEE2, plastidic fructose-bisphosphate aldolase (pFBA), and lipocalin. A higher level of lipocalin, potentially involved in prevention of lipid peroxidation under stress, was also observed in the HST genotype. Our physiological and proteomic results performed for the first time on the species of forage grasses clearly showed that chloroplast metabolism adjustment could be a crucial factor in developing salinity tolerance.

Procedia Environmental Sciences, 2015

Proceedings of the International Conference on Computer Vision Theory and Applications, 2010

International Journal of Molecular Sciences

Lolium multiflorum/Festuca arundinacea introgression forms have been proved several times to be g... more Lolium multiflorum/Festuca arundinacea introgression forms have been proved several times to be good models to identify key components of grass metabolism involved in the mechanisms of tolerance to water deficit. Here, for the first time, a relationship between photosynthetic and antioxidant capacities with respect to drought tolerance of these forms was analyzed in detail. Two closely related L. multiflorum/F. arundinacea introgression forms distinct in their ability to re-grow after cessation of prolonged water deficit in the field were selected and subjected to short-term drought in pots to dissect precisely mechanisms of drought tolerance in this group of plants. The studies revealed that the form with higher drought tolerance was characterized by earlier and higher accumulation of abscisic acid, more stable cellular membranes, and more balanced reactive oxygen species metabolism associated with a higher capacity of the antioxidant system under drought conditions. On the other h...