Low temperature induces damage to cell membranes
and also affects physiological functions of
plants. Relative permeability of the plasma membranes
has been used to illustrate the damage degree
of low temperature stress (Lukatkin, 2003). The lower
relative permeability of plasma membrane under low
temperature stress means less damage from low
temperature stress. Priming with chitosan reduced the
relative permeability of the plasma membranes of the
two lines under low temperature stress, indicating that
chitosan priming alleviated the chilling injury of the
seedlings. Similar observations have been made previously
by seed film coated with a cold-tolerant agent
on maize subjected to low temperature stress (Li et al.,
2004)