Abstract
Heat stress is a major limiting factor of grain yield and quality in crops. Abiotic stresses have a transgenerational impact and the mechanistic basis is associated with epigenetic regulation. The current study presents the first systematic analysis of the transgenerational effects of post-anthesis heat stress in tetraploid wheat. Leaf physiological traits, harvest components and grain quality traits were characterized under the impact of parental and progeny heat stress. The parental heat stress treatment had a positive influence on the offspring for traits including chlorophyll content, grain weight, grain number and grain total starch content. Integrated sequencing analysis of the small RNAome, mRNA transcriptome and degradome provided the first description of the molecular networks mediating heat stress adaptation under transgenerational influence. The expression profile of 1771 microRNAs (733 being novel) and 66,559 genes was provided, with differentially expressed microRNAs and genes characterized subject to the progeny treatment, parental treatment and tissue-type factors. Gene Ontology and KEGG pathway analysis of stress responsive microRNAs-mRNA modules provided further information on their functional roles in biological processes such as hormone homeostasis, signal transduction and protein stabilization. Our results provide new insights on the molecular basis of transgenerational heat stress adaptation, which can be used for improving thermo-tolerance in breeding.
Highlights
Durum wheat (Triticum turgidum ssp. durum) is a widely grown tetraploid wheat used for human consumption
(DBA Aurora progeny treated with the control, originated from heat stress group parents), AuHH (DBA Aurora progeny treated with heat stress, originated from heat stress group parents), AtCC (DBA Artemis progeny treated with the control, originated from control group parents), AtCH (DBA Artemis progeny treated with heat stress, originated from control group parents), AtHC (DBA Artemis progeny treated with the control, originated from heat stress group parents), AtHH (DBA Artemis progeny treated with heat stress, originated from heat stress group parents)
The treatment groups are: AuCC (DBA Aurora progeny treated with the control, originated from control group parents), AuCH (DBA Aurora progeny treated with heat stress, originated from control group parents), AuHC (DBA Aurora progeny treated with the control, originated from heat stress group parents), AuHH (DBA Aurora progeny treated with heat stress, originated from heat stress group parents), AtCC (DBA Artemis progeny treated with the control, originated from control group parents), AtCH (DBA Artemis progeny treated with heat stress, originated from control group parents), AtHC (DBA Artemis progeny treated with the control, originated from heat stress group parents), AtHH (DBA Artemis progeny treated with heat stress, originated from heat stress group parents)
Summary
Durum wheat (Triticum turgidum ssp. durum) is a widely grown tetraploid wheat (genomes AABB) used for human consumption. Durum) is a widely grown tetraploid wheat (genomes AABB) used for human consumption. As a staple food crop, grains of durum wheat are used in a wide range of end-products, such as pasta, couscous, freekeh, unleavened and leavened bread [2,3]. Compared with common hexaploid wheat, durum grains have several unique quality traits, such as superior protein content, high grain hardness and an amber-colored vitreous endosperm [3,4]. In Mediterranean regions, abiotic stresses such as drought and heat are significant threats to durum wheat yield, grain quality and the characteristics of end-products [1,5,6,7]. In the Australian wheat belt, high temperature often occurs in the field after anthesis during grain development, and increases in intensity until maturity [8,9]
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