The frost hardiness of many plants such as chickpea can be increased by exposure to low non-freezing temperatures and/or the application of abscisic acid (ABA), a process known as frost acclimation. Experiments were conducted to study the response over a 14 d period of enriched plasma membrane fractions isolated from chickpea plants exposed to low temperature and sprayed with exogenous ABA. Measurement of the temperatures inducing 50% foliar cell death (LT50), and subsequent statistical analysis suggest that, like many plants, exposure to low temperatures (5/-2 degrees C; day/night) induces a significant level (P <0.05) of frost acclimation in chickpea when compared with control plants (20/7 degrees C; day/night). Spraying plants with exogenous ABA also increased frost tolerance (P <0.05), but was not as effective as low temperature-induced frost acclimation. Both pre-exposure to low temperatures and pre-treatment with ABA increased the levels of fatty acid desaturation in the plasma membrane (measured as the double bond index, DBI). Exposure of chickpea plants to low temperatures increased the DBI by 15% at day 4 and 19% at day 14 when compared with untreated control plants. Application of ABA alone did not increase the DBI by more than 6% at any time; the effects of both treatments applied together was more than additive, inducing a DBI increase of 27% at day 14 when compared with controls. There was a good correlation (P <0.05) between the DBI and LT50, suggesting that the presence of more unsaturated lipid in the plasma membrane may prevent cell lysis at low temperatures. Both pre-exposure to low, non-freezing temperatures and pre-treatment with ABA induced measurable changes in membrane fluidity, but these changes did not correlate with changes in LT50, suggesting that physical properties of the plasma membrane other than fluidity are involved in frost acclimation in chickpea.