We report a series of microarray-based leaf and crown transcriptome comparisons involving three barley cultivars (cvs. Luxor, Igri and Atlas 68) which express differing degrees of frost tolerance. The transcripts were obtained following the exposure of seedlings to low (above and below zero) temperatures, aiming to identify those genes and signalling/metabolic pathways which are associated with frost tolerance. Both the leaves and the crowns responded to low temperature by the up-regulation of a suite of abscisic acid (ABA)-responsive genes, most of which have already been recognized as components of the plant low temperature response. The inter-cultivar comparison indicated that genes involved in maintaining the leaf's capacity to synthesize protein and to retain chloroplast activity were important for the expression of frost tolerance. In the crown, the repression of genes associated with nucleosome assembly and transposon regulation were the most relevant transcriptional changes associated with frost tolerance, highlighting the role of gene repression in the cold acclimation response.

• MeSH
• Down-Regulation MeSH
• Hordeum genetics   metabolism   MeSH
• Plant Leaves genetics   metabolism   MeSH
• Chromosome Mapping MeSH
• Nucleosomes genetics   metabolism   MeSH
• Cold-Shock Response MeSH
• Gene Expression Regulation, Plant MeSH
• Genes, Plant MeSH
• Plant Proteins genetics   metabolism   MeSH
• Transcriptional Elongation Factors genetics   metabolism   MeSH
• Transcriptome MeSH
• Up-Regulation MeSH
• Freezing MeSH
• Publication type
• Journal Article MeSH
• Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't MeSH
• Names of Substances
• Nucleosomes MeSH
• Plant Proteins MeSH
• Transcriptional Elongation Factors MeSH