Progress towards understanding interactions between cold hardiness and snow mold resistance and development of resistant cultivars
1994
Gauder, D.A. (Agriculture Canada, Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada.)
Biennial and perennial crop species grown in the boreal ecosystem must survive periods of protracted snow cover and low temperatures during the winter. Plant crowns, insulated by deep snow, are not normally exposed to extremely low temperatures. Temperatures ranging from 0 to -8 degrees C under snow provide ideal conditions for the development of psychrophilic fungi. Sub-lethal temperatures from -5 to -10 degrees C can act synergistically with snow molds to reduce plant survival. Snow molds can also render plants more susceptible to low temperature injury. Thus high levels of resistance to low temperatures and to snow molds are requisite in crops adapted to northern regions. Study of hardening, snow mold infection, and metabolism of soluble carbohydrates during plant growth can provide insight into plant survival mechanisms. The complex nature of inheritance of resistance to snow mold and to low temperatures increases the difficulty of breeding resistant cultivars. The use of double haploid technology and molecular markers co-segregating with resistance will enable simultaneous selection of desired traits and accelerate development of adapted cultivars
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