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Studies on Freezing Injury of Plant Cells

I. Relation between Thermotropic Properties of Isolated Plasma Membrane Vesicles and Freezing Injury ¹

The Institute of Low Temperature Science, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan 060

The thermotropic transition of plasma membrane of Dactylis glomerata was studied by using fluorescence polarization of embedded fluorophore, 1,6-diphenyl-1,3,5-hexatriene. Under the presence of 35% ethylene glycol, reversible thermotropic transitions were observed in isolated plasma membrane vesicles in nearly the same temperature range as the temperature of freezing injury to cells. In liposomes prepared from isolated plasma membranes, however, the thermotropic transitions occurred at much lower temperatures in comparison with those of intact membrane vesicles. Following treatment with pronase, the thermotropic transition also shifted downward.

Thus, the thermotropic properties of plasma membranes appeared to be dependent on the membrane proteins. In vitro freezing of the isolated plasma membrane vesicles without addition of any cryoprotectant, such as sorbitol, resulted in an irreversible alteration both in the fluorescence anisotropy values and the temperatures for the thermotropic transition, suggesting an irreversible alteration in the membrane structure, presumably changes in lipid-protein interactions and protein conformation.