Karen K. Tanino

University of Saskatchewan | U of S · Department of Plant Sciences

Field winterhardiness is a critical trait in rose cultivars ( Rosa × hybrida ) grown in northern climates. Although the molecular basis of cold hardiness has been well documented in model organisms such as Arabidopsis thaliana , little is known about the genetics and mechanisms underlying winterhardiness in roses. This research aims to explore the...

Background Alfalfa ( Medicago sativa L.) production decreases under salt stress. Identification of genes associated with salt tolerance in alfalfa is essential for the development of molecular markers used for breeding and genetic improvement. Result An RNA-Seq technique was applied to identify the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) associated...

Solar radiation data are essential information for designing and studying various engineering systems such as building thermal performance, photovoltaics, solar thermal systems, and passive solar design. Several empirical models have been developed to simulate the available solar radiation on the earth’s surface. This article presents a comprehensi...

Background Over the life cycle of perennial trees, the dormant state enables the avoidance of abiotic stress conditions. The growth cycle can be partitioned into induction, maintenance and release and is controlled by complex interactions between many endogenous and environmental factors. While phytohormones have long been linked with dormancy, the...

Cuticular waxes are a mixture of hydrophobic very-long-chain fatty acids and their derivatives accumulated in the plant cuticle. Most studies define the role of cuticular wax largely based on reducing nonstomatal water loss. The present study investigated the role of cuticular wax in reducing both low-temperature and dehydration stress in plants us...

Due to global climate change in Western Canada, winter cereals will be exposed to a higher frequency of winter thaws which will increase crown water and thereby reduce freezing tolerance. Cold‐acclimated winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) and fall rye (Secale cereale L.) were held at −4°C under a snow cover for up to 120 days and periodically subj...

Cuticular waxes are a mixture of hydrophobic very-long-chain fatty acids and their derivatives accumulated in the plant cuticle. Most studies define the role of cuticular wax largely based on reducing non-stomatal water loss. The present study investigated the role of cuticular wax in reducing both low-temperature and dehydration stress in plants u...

Background Over the life cycle of perennial trees, the dormant state enables the avoidance of abiotic stress conditions. The growth cycle can be partitioned into induction, maintenance and release and is controlled by complex interactions between many endogenous and environmental factors. While phytohormones have long been linked with dormancy, the...

Background Over the life cycle of perennial trees, the dormant state enables the avoidance of abiotic stress conditions. The growth cycle can be partitioned into induction, maintenance and release and is controlled by complex interactions between many endogenous and environmental factors. While phytohormones have long been linked with dormancy, the...

Background Over the life cycle of perennial trees, the dormant state enables the avoidance of abiotic stress conditions. The growth cycle can be partitioned into induction, maintenance and release and is controlled by complex interactions between many endogenous and environmental factors. While phytohormones have long been linked with dormancy, the...

Hydroxyl radical (•OH) is considered to be the most damaging among reactive oxygen species. Although a few studies have reported on its effects on growth and stress adaptation of plants, no detailed studies have been performed using •OH in germination and early seedling growth under abiotic stresses. Here we report a single seed treatment with •OH...

Despite the extensive use of synchrotron radiation in material and biomedical sciences, it has only recently been utilized to expand our understanding of plant responses to environmental stress. Recent advances have led to the development of phenotyping platforms to identify chemical and morphological differences in breeding plant material. While t...

This study examined if dwarf French bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) grown at northern latitudes develop seeds with superior yielding potential compared with plants grown at more southern latitudes. Two lines (BND3085 and BND3106) were grown at four sites across latitudes ranging from 52°N to 3°S. BND3085 and BND3106 seeds from Saskatoon grown plants (...

The worldwide increase in demand for plant-derived drugs has increased interest in medicinal plants as alternative cash crops across western Canada. The objective of this research was to determine if the Northern Vigor ® phenomenon, expressed as a combination of elevated crop yield and phytomedicinal quality in crops grown in northern latitudes, ex...

TRNSYS is a powerful building simulation software widely used for transient simulation of thermal systems in the commercial and residential buildings but it has not been well studied for its application in greenhouses. This study presents a complete TRNSYS model (include all possible heat sources and sinks) for predicting the transient heating requ...

The accumulation and distribution of salt ions in leaf, stem and root tissues of salt-stressed alfalfa were studied using X-ray fluorescence spectroscopic at Canadian Light Source, SK.

Arsenic contamination is a major environmental issue as it may lead to serious health hazard. Reduced trivalent form of inorganic arsenic, arsenite, is in general more toxic to plants compared with the fully oxidized pentavalent arsenate. The uptake of arsenite in plants has been shown to be mediated through a large subfamily of plant aquaglyceropo...

Arsenic contamination is a major environmental issue as it may lead to serious health hazard. Reduced trivalent form of inorganic arsenic, arsenite, is in general more toxic to plants compared with the fully oxidized pentavalent arsenate. The uptake of arsenite in plants has been shown to be mediated through a large subfamily of plant aquaglyceropo...

The objective of this study was to understand the effects of salt stress on alfalfa from the whole plant to sub-cellular levels. Five alfalfa cultivars were grown in five gradients of salt stress of 0, 4, 8, 12 and 16 dS m-1 electrical conductivity (EC) in a sand-based hydroponic system for 12 weeks in the greenhouse. The elemental concentrations i...

The accumulation and distribution of organic compounds in leaf, stem and root tissue of salt-stressed alfalfa were studied using FITR spectroscopy at Canadian Light Source, SK.

Cuticular waxes form the primary interface between a plant and its external environment. The most important function of this hydrophobic interface is regulation of non-stomatal water loss, gas exchange and conferring resistance to a wide range of biotic as well as abiotic stresses. The biosynthesis, transport and deposition of the cuticular waxes a...

In nature abiotic stresses do not occur individually, instead occurs in combination. Many studies showed that the combined stress conditions have much more devastating effects on plant growth, development, and yield than any individual stress in the field conditions. Therefore, developing a sustainable solution to maintain/improve plant performance...

Meaningful improvements in winter cereal cold hardiness requires a complete model of freezing behaviour in the critical crown organ. Magnetic resonance microimaging diffusion weighted experiments provided evidence that cold‐acclimation decreased water content and mobility in the vascular transition zone (VTZ) and the intermediate zone in rye (Secal...

In boreal and temperate trees, air temperature is a major environmental factor regulating the timing of spring phenological events, such as vegetative bud burst, through underlying physiological processes. This has been established by experimental research, and mathematical process-based tree phenology models have been developed based on the result...

Reducing heating cost is a major challenge for greenhouses growers especially those located in cold regions. Several techniques have been applied to reduce greenhouse heating costs in winter season. This study presents a comprehensive review of different energy saving techniques that can be applied to reduce heating costs including energy-efficient...

Traditional methods of estimating frost damage to crops are labor-intensive and time-consuming. Remote sensing imagery and vegetation indices can be used for condition assessment, however, the utility of using vegetative indices in assessing frost damage specifically is not known. The objective of this study was to estimate the freezing injury usin...

The sensitivity of a heating simulation model (CSGHEAT) was performed for estimation of the time-dependent heating requirement in a Chinese-style solar greenhouse in cold region. Results showed that the constant value of air thermal conductance is the main default parameter of the model that significantly affected the model output. The results also...

Soft X-ray Spectromicroscopy: A Versatile Tool to Probe Pristine Plant Cell Walls - Volume 24 Supplement - Hayato Hiraki, Na Liu, Jian Wang, Jarvis Stobbs, Chithra Karunakaran, Karen Tanino

Greenhouse vegetable production in Canadian Prairies is important for creating a sustainable regional food economy, especially in northern communities. This study included the estimation of heating demand for year-round production and evaluation of the economic feasibility of greenhouse vegetable production (tomato, cucumber, and pepper) in a conce...

Global warming has encouraged farmers to start planting earlier. However, these advanced plantings also increase the risk by low-temperature stress. Therefore, accelerated germination under low-temperature conditions and enhanced chilling stress tolerance of seedlings are important factors to increase crop production. Here we show that a single see...

The simulation model CSGHEAT has been developed to estimate the hourly heating requirements in a Chinese-style solar greenhouse. The heating model was developed based on the heat balance of greenhouse air. With the set indoor temperatures, the surface temperatures of the floor and north wall were estimated by solving ordinary differential heat bala...

Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) is the largest cereal crop grown in Western Canada where drought during late vegetative and seed filling stages affects plant development and yield. To identify new physio-chemical markers associated with drought tolerance, epidermal characteristics of the flag leaf of two wheat cultivars with contrasting drought tolera...

Cloud cover based solar radiation models are relatively simple and convenient as the models require the input of cloud cover data which are mostly available from the meteorological stations. In this study, the performance of a cloud cover based solar radiation model (Kasten–Czeplak model) with original or locally fitted coefficients was evaluated f...

The wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) crown is the critical organ of low temperature stress survival over winter. In cold-acclimated crowns, ice formation in the apoplast causes severe tissue disruption as it grows at the expense of intracellular water. While previous crown studies have shown the vascular transition zone (VTZ) to have a higher freezing...

Greenhouses in northern climates require a large amount of supplemental heating for growing crops in winter seasons, so energy-efficient design of greenhouses based on local climate is important to minimize the heating demand. In this study, greenhouse design parameters including shape, orientation, the angle of the roof, and width of the span have...

In classical genetics and plant breeding, plant phenotypes are explained by genotype, environment and their interactions. Currently, the epigenetic component is recognized as another element functioning together with genetics and environment to determine phenotypic traits. Understanding the mechanism of epigenetics, the sources of epigenetic variat...

In classical genetics and plant breeding, plant phenotypes are explained by genotype, environment and their interactions. Currently, the epigenetic component is recognized as another element functioning together with genetics and environment to determine phenotypic traits. Understanding the mechanism of epigenetics, the sources of epigenetic variat...

A time-dependent, quasi-steady state thermal model (GREENHEAT) based on the lumped estimation of heat transfer parameters of greenhouses has been developed to predict the hourly heating requirements of conventional greenhouses. The model was designed to predict the hourly heating requirements based on the input of greenhouse indoor environmental co...

Whereas long days (LD) sustain shoot elongation, short days (SD) induce growth cessation and formation of dormant buds in young individuals of a wide range of temperate and boreal tree species. In specific conifers, including Norway spruce, photoperiodic control of bud development is associated with the formation of a plate of thick-walled cells, d...

Greenhouse vegetable production in the Canadian Prairies is important for creating a sustainable regional food economy, especially in northern communities. This study includes the estimation of heating demand for year-round production, and evaluation of the economic feasibility of greenhouse vegetable production (Tomato, Cucumber, and Pepper) in Sa...

The solar radiation data are very important for building thermal performance and solar application analysis. However, the continuous time series solar radiation data are not available for the most part of the world and the measured data available from a solar station become less accurate for a given location beyond 50 km from the measuring station....

Synchrotron techniques are powerful tools in material and environmental sciences. However, they are currently underutilized in plant research. The Canadian Light Source synchrotron on the University of Saskatchewan campus is the only such facility in Canada, open to academic, government, and industrial clients. This review introduces the potential...

Differences in metal concentrations and total antioxidant capacity were compared to assess potential risks of consumption amongst four locally sourced and imported crops in Saskatchewan, Canada. Total antioxidant capacity was significantly greater in locally sourced strawberry and red peppers. Concentrations of cadmium, copper, nickel, and zinc wer...

Previous studies have shown that plants developed under high relative air humidity (RH > 85%) develop malfunctioning stomata and therefor have increased transpiration and reduced desiccation tolerance when transferred to lower RH conditions and darkness. In this study, plants developed at high RH were exposed to daily VPD fluctuations created by ch...

Epigenetic inheritance was transmitted through selection over five generations of extreme early, but not late flowering time phenotypic lines in Fragaria vesca. Epigenetic variation was initially artificially induced using the DNA demethylation reagent 5-azacytidine (5-azaC). It is the first report to explore epigenetic variant selection and phenot...

Background Phenotypic variation is determined by a combination of genotype, environment and their interactions. The realization that allelic diversity can be both genetic and epigenetic allows the environmental component to be further separated. Partitioning phenotypic variation observed among inbred lines with an altered epigenome can allow the ep...

While synchrotron techniques are powerful tools in material and environmental sciences, it is still underutilized in plant research. The Canadian Light Source synchrotron located on the campus of the University of Saskatchewan is the only such facility in Canada and is open to academic and government researchers, and industrial clients. This talk i...

A mathematical model is developed for simulation of the heating requirement in Chinese solar greenhouses. The model was developed based on the heat balance of the greenhouse air that takes into account all of the heat sources and sinks and transfers mechanisms including the variation in solar radiation, ventilation and infiltration, heat storage ca...

The effects of drought acclimation in three contrasting potato genotypes [‘Fv12246-6′ (Fv) drought stress sensitive, ‘Vigor’ (V) moderately drought resistant and ‘Russet Burbank’ (RB) drought resistant] in a low relative humidity greenhouse were examined. Non-Acclimated and Non-Stressed (NA), Non-Acclimated and Drought Stressed (NAS), Drought Accli...

The effects of drought acclimation on drought stress resistance in three potato genotypes [‘Fv12246-6’ (Fv), ‘Vigor’ (V) and ‘Russet Burbank’ (RB)] in a low relative humidity greenhouse were examined. Non-Acclimated and Non-Stressed (NA), Non-Acclimated and Drought Stressed (NAS), Drought Acclimated and Drought Stressed (DAS) treatments were applie...

A pseudo dynamic thermal model has been developed for simulating the heating/cooling energy requirement of conventional greenhouses based on lumped estimation of heat flow parameters in greenhouses. Most of the parameters of greenhouse energy flux have been considered in the model including the sensible heat usage in plant transpiration, and also h...

While synchrotron radiation is a powerful tool in material and biomedical sciences, it is still underutilized in plant research. This mini review attempts to introduce the potential of synchrotron-based spectroscopic and imaging methods and their applications to plant sciences. Synchrotron-based Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray absorp...

Mid-Infrared and high energy X-ay spectroscopy were used to analyze the organic and mineral composition of pea seeds from two genotypes of peas that differ in phytic acid content. Mid-IR absorption spectra of bulk pea seed samples were used to assess the spectral differences between the two pea genotypes and identify the absorption maxima of spectr...

Background: Fusarium Head Blight (FHB), a scab principally caused by Fusarium graminearum Schw., is a serious disease of wheat. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the potential of combining synchrotron based phase contrast X-ray imaging (PCI) with Fourier Transform mid infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy to understand the mechanisms of resistance to...

The present application pertains to compositions for enhancing or controlling the germination of seeds. The compositions comprise i) a transition metal catalyst such as nanoparticulate catalyst bearing one or more transition metals, a carbon nanotube impregnated with Fe, Cu, Mo, Rh or Co, or a transition metal salt (FeS0 , CuS0 or a cobalt salt) an...

Plants that survive subzero temperatures in winter enhance their freezing tolerance upon exposure to non-freezing temperature, a phenomenon termed cold acclimation. Although the mechanism of enhanced freezing tolerance has been widely examined at the molecular level, the understanding of cell physiological aspects remains poor. In our previous stud...

Dormancy development in plants is synchronized with the cessation of environmental conditions that favour plant growth. The timing of this response is important in trees for growth and survival. Woody plants, such as dogwood (Cornus sericea L.) have evolved different ecotypes that are closely adapted to local climatic conditions, which are differen...

Synchrotron-based Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) microspectroscopy is a powerful tool for nondestructively highlighting spatial distribution of candidate chemical components and properties on a single plant cell basis. We have used this technique to localize changes after cold acclimation in a new plant system based on a cold hardy perennial oni...

Allium fistulosum was investigated as a novel model system to examine the mechanism of freezing resistance in cold hardy plants. The 250 × 50 × 90 µm average cell size and single epidermal cell layer system allowed direct observation of endoplasmic reticulum, functional group localization during acclimation, freezing and thawing on an individual ce...

This book contains 16 chapters dealing with the impact of global climate change on non-human life on Earth, particularly on the effects of global warming on species that currently depend on cool or cold conditions for survival. These organisms include insects, freshwater and marine invertebrates, marine mammals, and boreal forest trees. The degree...

Temperature adaptation is a much neglected field in the minds of climate change researchers and policy makers. However, increasing fluctuations in temperature mean that the risk of cold and heat stress will pose an increasing threat to both wild and cultivated plants and animals, with frost injury expected to cause devastating damage to crops on an...

Small but important differences in winter survival are known to exist between winter canola cultivars. The objective of this study was to compare a short-term (lethal temperature for 50% plant kill [LT(50)]) and a prolonged (lethal duration time for 50% plant kill [LD(50)]) freeze test to identify differences in freezing tolerance of winter canola...

Climate warming has increased researchers' interest in plant phenology and its modelling. Although the main focus is on projections of accelerated springtime phenological events, also a further extension of the growing season by delayed growth cessation is often projected. However, ecophysiological studies indicate that, for boreal and temperate tr...

Native plants have adaptations to their local environments and elucidation of these traits has implications in both agronomy and restoration ecology. Winterfat (Krascheninnikovia lanata (Pursh) A.D.J. Meeuse & Smit) is a native perennial shrub in North America capable of germinating at low temperatures. The effect of seed size on germination abilit...