Abstract
Modern wheat cultivars are increasingly sensitive to ground level ozone, with 7–10% mean yield reductions in the northern hemisphere. In this study, three of the genome donors of bread wheat, Triticum urartu (AA), T. dicoccoides (AABB), and Aegilops tauschii (DD) along with a modern wheat cultivar (T. aestivum ‘Skyfall’), a 1970s cultivar (T. aestivum ‘Maris Dove’), and a line of primary Synthetic Hexaploid Wheat were grown in 6 L pots of sandy loam soil in solardomes (Bangor, North Wales) and exposed to low (30 ppb), medium (55 ppb), and high (110 ppb) levels of ozone over 3 months. Measurements were made at harvest of shoot biomass and grain yield. Ae. tauschii appeared ozone tolerant with no significant effects of ozone on shoot biomass, seed head biomass, or 1000 grain + husk weight even under high ozone levels. In comparison, T. urartu had a significant reduction in 1000 grain + husk weight, especially under high ozone (−26%). The older cultivar, ‘Maris Dove’, had a significant reduction in seed head biomass (−9%) and 1000 grain weight (−11%) but was less sensitive than the more recent cultivar ‘Skyfall’, which had a highly significant reduction in its seed head biomass (−21%) and 1000 grain weight (−27%) under high ozone. Notably, the line of primary Synthetic Hexaploid Wheat was ozone tolerant, with no effect on total seed head biomass (−1%) and only a 5% reduction in 1000 grain weight under high ozone levels. The potential use of synthetic wheat in breeding ozone tolerant wheat is discussed.
Highlights
Bread wheat, Triticum aestivum L., is a very adaptable crop plant, successfully growing in a wide variety of environments and climatic conditions across the globe
The results suggest that when grown to final yield, Ae. tauschii is ozone tolerant, as is primary Synthetic Hexaploid Wheat, with ozone sensitivity found in the AA genome as well as in both the cultivars, though the older cultivar was less sensitive than the more recent one
Based on both shoot biomass and yield data, the accession of Ae. tauschii in this study was found to be ozone tolerant. This is contrary to previous assessments of the ozone sensitivity of Ae. tauschii using young plants in a short ozone exposure during the vegetative stage [32,33]
Summary
Triticum aestivum L., is a very adaptable crop plant, successfully growing in a wide variety of environments and climatic conditions across the globe. This adaptability is due in part to the complexity of its genome, derived from its progenitor diploid and tetraploid species [1,2] and containing extensive gene replication and diversity [3]. Background levels of 25–55 ppb often occur, especially in the northern hemisphere where the highest concentrations of anthropogenic emissions of these precursor gases are found [10]. Wheat is an ozone sensitive species and current levels of ground level ozone suppress mean global wheat yields in the northern hemisphere by 7.1–9.9% per year [6,13]
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