Metabolic Changes in Plants under Chilling Stress

Abstract

Stress, causes environmental and biological factors to undergo significant changes in physiological events that occur in plants. Various studies have also shown that the temperature factor is one of the most important factors affecting the metabolism of plants. Chilling stress begins as the temperature falls below the values required for plant growth. Each plant species has its own degree of chilling. In other words, it is the temperature at which the metabolic activity decreases. In plant changes, this change varies according to the degree of chilling. As a result of the formation of oxygen radicals, which cause harm to plant metabolism and break down, due to the stres that occur in plants exposed to cold. The defense system is activated due to the genetic structure of the plant species and variety and the antioxidative enzyme activities in this defense system play an important role. In this study, the metabolic effects of chilling stress on plants and the defense mechanism that plants developed against cold were investigated.

Keywords; Stress, cold, plant, temperature, antioxidative enzyme activities