Temperature Effects on Soybean Imbibition and Leakage

As a part of an analysis of the nature of chilling injury to seeds, measurements were made of the initial linear rates of water entry into and solute leakage out of cotyledons of soybean at various temperatures. Arrhenius plots were approximately linear for water entry into both living and dead cotyledons, with the slope (and activation energy) for entry into living cells being insignificantly higher than for dead cells, suggesting little effect of membrane barriers on water entry. The plots for solute leakage showed 10-fold lower leakage rates from living than from dead tissues; a reversal of slope in the Arrhenius plot at temperatures below 15 C reflected increasing leakage rates, interpreted as a quantitative disruption of membrane reorganization at the temperatures associated with chilling injury.