The objective of this study was to determine the spatial and temporal distribution of the peptide BN28 in Brassica napus cv. Cascade seedlings during low temperature acclimation. Immunoblots revealed that BN28 was present in leaves and shoot apical meristems of plants grown under low temperature but was absent from older tissues in the stem. Immunocytochemistry was used to determine the distribution throughout leaf and apical meristem tissues. BN28 was found throughout the apical meristems, was localized in the ground tissue and epidermis of young leaves, and was restricted to the ground tissue and guard cells in mature leaves. Differences in total accumulation were also noted, with the youngest leaves having the highest accumulation of BN28 and the quantity decreasing with leaf age. Despite these differences, plant developmental stage did not affect the accumulation of BN28 in individual leaves. Post-transcriptional controls are expected to regulate accumulation of the protein, as bn28 mRNA accumulates during acclimation in both young and mature leaves. Immunolocalization studies of BN28 in acclimated leaf tissue confirmed that BN28 is cytoplasmically localized and has no apparent weak association with organelles or other cellular membrane systems. Key words: acclimation, Brassica, development, immunocytochemistry, low temperature, protein synthesis.
