Heat Shock Proteins in Wild Barley at “Evolution Canyon”, Mount Carmel, Israel

Abstract

The analysis of stress-responsiveness in cereal plants is an important route to the discovery of genes conferring stress tolerance and their use in breeding programs. High temperature is one of the environmental stress factors that can affect the growth and quality characteristics of barley (Hordeum vulgare). Almost all stresses induce the production of a group of proteins called heat-shock protein (HSPs) or stress-induced proteins. The induction of transcription of these different types of heat shock proteins reflects an adaptation to tolerate the heat stress. The “Evolution Canyon” I at lower Nahal Oren, Mount Carmel, Israel (EC I), reveals evolution in action across life at a microsite caused by interslope microclimatic divergence. The adaptation, speciation, domestication and rich genetic diversity of wild barley, H. spontaneum, was a good model to study the evolution and adaptation at both macro- and micro-scale levels. The genetic divergence and haplotype diversity of heat shock protein genes were significantly different among the populations at EC I. The diversity was also correlated with microclimatic divergence interslopes. We briefly review the remarkable interslope incipient adaptive sympatric speciation of wild barley at “Evolution Canyon”, focusing on HSPs which highlight barley improvement for stress tolerances.