Expression of dehydrin 5 during the development of frost tolerance in barley (Hordeum vulgare)

The Dhn5 gene is the major cold-inducible dehydrin gene in barley. This study deals with the relationship between Dhn5 gene expression and its protein product accumulation, and the development of frost tolerance (FT) upon cold acclimation (CA) in 10 barley cultivars of different growth habits and geographical origins. The activation of Dhn5 gene expression was determined by quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR), the accumulation of DHN5 protein was evaluated by protein gel blot analysis using a specific anti-dehydrin antibody, and the acquired level of FT was determined by a direct frost test. During the first 2 weeks of CA, there was a rapid increase in Dhn5 gene expression, DHN5 protein accumulation and FT in all cultivars examined. After 2 weeks of CA, differences in DHN5 accumulation and in FT measured as lethal temperature (LT50) were observed between the cultivars belonging to different growth habits. Specifically, intermediate (I) and winter (W) cultivars showed a higher level of DHN5 accumulation and FT than the spring (S) cultivars, which exhibited a lower level of accumulated DHN5 and FT. (Intermediate cultivars do not have vernalization requirement, but they are able to induce a relatively high level of FT upon CA.) In contrast, no differences between the cultivars belonging to different growth habits in Dhn5 mRNA accumulation were found. After 3 weeks of CA, the differences in accumulated DHN5 and FT between the individual growth habits became evident due to different developmental regulation of FT. The amount of accumulated DHN5 corresponded well with the level of FT of individual cultivars. We conclude that the amount of accumulated DHN5 after a certain period of CA differed according to the growth habits of cultivars and can be used as a marker for determination of FT in barley.