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Correlations between mitochondrial respiration, glycolysis activity and overall growth activity of rice (Oryza sativa: cv. Dasan) seedlings during low temperature exposure were studied in order to provide insights into the underlying mechanism for the primary phase of chilling injury in plants. Among cellular membranes involved in energy metabolism, only the mitochondrial inner membrane showed not only physical phase transition at ca. 13℃, as monitored by ESR spin label, but also functional phase transition at the same temperature, as assessed by cytochrome c oxidase activity. The main regulatory enzyme of glycolysis, phosphofructokinase, in situ did not suffer phase transition of its activity at least in the 4∼27℃ range. Low temperature caused a significant accumulation of glucose 6-phosphate (G6P) and fructose 6-phosphate (F6P), which disappeared almost completely on rewarming of the seedlings. Temperature profiles of the steady state levels of G6P and F6P revealed the inflection point appearing at around phase transition temperature of the mitochondrial membrane. The results conform to our previous proposition on the mechanism for the early stage events of chilling injury that the accumulation of glycolytic metabolites in cells due to metabolic imbalance at low temperature gives rise to an excess supply of electrons during rewarming period, which, in turn, results in overproduction of active oxygen in mitochondria.
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