Morphophysiological responses of Setaria viridis to cold stress

Abstract The objective of this work was to determine the suitability of Setaria viridis as a model plant in studies to validate candidate genes for cold tolerance by evaluating the response of two of its accessions to different durations of abrupt or gradual cold stress in the vegetative and reproductive stages. Plants of accessions A10.1 and Ast-1, cultivated at 25°C, were subjected to the following cold stress treatments: gradual reduction in temperature from 25 to 0°C, 5°C at a time, every 24 hours in a same chamber; or abrupt reduction in temperature, by transferring plants from a chamber at 25°C to another at 0°C. Plants were kept at 0°C for 3, 5, or 10 days, after which temperature was increased back again to 25°C; a control group remained at 25ºC. Low temperatures – reduced abruptly or gradually – caused a decrease in the gas exchange rates and shoot and root biomass of the plants, besides damage to their photochemical apparatus; the longer the cold lasted, the more pronounced the effect was. Regardless of stress duration, plants recovered and completed their life cycle. The studied accessions are tolerant to cold and, therefore, are not suitable as a model plant in studies to validate candidate genes for cold tolerance.