Abstract
Random mutagenesis was applied to produce a new wheat mutant (RYNO3926) with superior characteristics regarding tolerance to water deficit stress induced at late booting stage. The mutant also displays rapid recovery from water stress conditions. Under water stress conditions mutant plants reached maturity faster and produced more seeds than its wild type wheat progenitor. Wild-type Tugela DN plants died within 7 days after induction of water stress induced at late booting stage, while mutant plants survived by maintaining a higher relative moisture content (RMC), increased total chlorophyll, and a higher photosynthesis rate and stomatal conductance. Analysis of the proteome of mutant plants revealed that they better regulate post-translational modification (SUMOylation) and have increased expression of ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase (RuBisCO) proteins. Mutant plants also expressed unique proteins associated with dehydration tolerance including abscisic stress-ripening protein, cold induced protein, cold-responsive protein, dehydrin, Group 3 late embryogenesis, and a lipoprotein (LAlv9) belonging to the family of lipocalins. Overall, our results suggest that our new mutant RYNO3936 has a potential for inclusion in future breeding programs to improve drought tolerance under dryland conditions.
Highlights
Water deficit caused by drought conditions is a worldwide concern drastically reducing crop yield (Altieri and Nicholls, 2017)
When growth and reproduction of the mutant wheat line RYNO3936 was compared with its wild type (WT) Tugela DN parent, it took significantly longer (148.0 ± 4.0 vs. 100.5 ± 9.5 days) to reach the heading phase under well-watered growth conditions, but headed much sooner (92.0 ± 11.0 days) under water deficit conditions (Table 1)
Chemically induced mutagenesis has already produced excellent results by altering major polygenic traits leading to synergistic effects which increased the quality and yield of wheat (Ahloowalia et al, 2004; Tian et al, 2012)
Summary
Water deficit caused by drought conditions is a worldwide concern drastically reducing crop yield (Altieri and Nicholls, 2017). The authors suggested that a lower malondialdehyde content and higher antioxidative enzyme activities (ascorbate peroxidase, catalase, peroxidase) in tasg was the casual factor that allowed the plants to perform better under drought stress. Despite these suggestions, supporting evidence was limited as the observations were mostly based on measuring chlorophyll fluorescence, selected enzymatic activities, and chlorophyll structure using microscopy
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