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Chinese Agricultural Science Bulletin ›› 2015, Vol. 31 ›› Issue (4): 127-134.doi: 10.11924/j.issn.1000-6850.2014-1905

Special Issue: 园艺

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Frost Hardiness of Chinese Jujube Shoots Assessed by Electrical Impedance Spectroscopy and Electrolyte Leakage Methods

Zhang Zhendong1, Gong Ruijuan2, Wang Zhe1, Gao Jiao1, Li Yingyue1, Zhang Gang2, Pang Xiaoming1   

  1. (1National Engineering Laboratory for Tree Breeding/ Key Laboratory of Genetics and Breeding in Forest Trees and Ornamental Plants, Ministry of Education/ College of Biological Sciences and Biotechnology, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing 100083; 2College of Horticulture, Agricultural University of Hebei, Baoding Hebei 071001)
  • Received:2014-07-09 Revised:2014-09-26 Accepted:2014-11-03 Online:2015-03-20 Published:2015-03-20

Abstract: Low temperature mainly limits the growth and productivity of Chinese jujube in winter and spring. The most effective way to avoid these damages in areas subjected to these climatic conditions is to select the least susceptible varieties, so the choice of the right method to determine cold hardiness is extremely important. The one-year-old shoots of seven Chinese jujube cultivars were used to measure the frost hardiness by means of electrical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and conventional electrolyte leakage (EL) methods after exposed to controlled freezing tests. The changes of EIS parameters (specific resistances r and r1 in Single-DCE model, specific extracellular resistance re, specific intracellular resistance ri, relaxation time τ and distribution coefficient of relaxation time ψ) and the correlations between the frost hardiness results of two methods were compared in order to find the optimum EIS parameters for measuring the frost hardiness of Chinese jujube. The results showed that after controlled freezing tests, the EIS parameters decreased with the reduced temperature. The frost hardiness estimated by EIS parameters re and τ correlated significantly with the frost hardiness assessed by EL method (R=0.840 and 0.879, respectively). The results suggested that the parameters re and τ could be applied for measuring frost hardiness of the samples of Chinese jujube after exposed to controlled freezing tests. The EIS method was found to be more superior than the EL owing to its time saving, non-destructive and no need of incubation.