Transcriptomics study of zoysia japonica in response to cold acclimation

Zoysiagrass is a warm-season perennial turfgrass commonly grown in the southeastern United States for its relatively low input requirements and general tolerance to drought, shade and salinity. Improving freezing tolerance is critical for zoysiagrass, as it could extend the northern boundaries that the species is able to be grown in. To deepen our understanding of the molecular basis of freezing tolerance in zoysiagrass, a transcriptomic approach was utilized to identify genes involved in cold acclimation, a critical step in the development of freezing tolerance. Meyer, a freeze tolerant cultivar, and Victoria, a freeze susceptible cultivar were subjected to cold acclimation and non-cold acclimation treatments to determine the number of differentially expressed genes.