Plant Acclimatization

PLANT ACCLIMITIZATION

1. PRINCIPLES OF PLANT BREEDING PLANT ACCLIMATIZATION Dr. Shweta Gupta ( Faculty, Genetics and Plant Breeding) College of Agriculture and Research station , Marra, Durg (C.G) WELCOME

2. Domestication: “ All cultivated plants today were wild some lay. The process of domestication started when man started superior plants for use. Domestication is the process of bringing wild species under human management.” Or “ Domestication is the taming and training of plants to suit the human needs and putting them under cultivation.”

3. ACCLIMATIZATION “Acclimatization is the adaptation or adjustment of an individual plant or a population of plants under the changed climate for a number of generations.” Thus, it is a sort of natural selection operating into the introduced plant material. Acclimatization follows the introduction and both processes go side by side.

4. Some important facts about the acclimatization are: 1. Genetic variability must be present in the introduced material for acclimatization to occur. 2. Due to better genetic recombination, cross pollinated species have better acclimatization capacity than self-pollinated crops.

5. 3. Annual crop has better acclimatization capacity than perennial crop because in annuals each generation would produce new gene recombination every year. 4. If the period of acclimatization is very long, the mutation also plays an important role in acclimatization. Acclimatization physiological, biochemical, or anatomical modifications occurring within the lifetime of an individual organism that result from exposure to a naturally occurring environmental challenge (phenotypic change).

6. Example of Acclimatization : Humans who migrate permanently to a higher altitude naturally acclimatize to their new environment by developing an increase in the number of red blood cells to increase the oxygen carrying capacity of the blood, in order to compensate for lower levels of oxygen in the air.

7. EXAMPLE : Many plants, such as maple trees and tomatoes, can survive freezing temperatures if the temperature gradually drops lower and lower each night over a period of days or weeks. The same drop might kill them if it occurred suddenly.