Ma Jun, Li Ruiqi, Wang Hongguang, Li Dongxiao, Wang Xingyi, Zhang Yuechen, Zhen Wenchao, Duan Huijun, Yan Guijun, Li Yanming
Faculty of Science, School of Plant Biology, The UWA Institute of Agriculture, The University of Western AustraliaPerth, WA, Australia.
North China Key Laboratory for Crop Germplasm Resources of Education Ministry, College of Agronomy, Hebei Agricultural UniversityBaoding, China.
Front Plant Sci. 2017 Apr 21;8:592. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2017.00592. eCollection 2017.
Drought is a major abiotic stress that limits wheat production worldwide. To ensure food security for the rapidly increasing world population, improving wheat yield under drought stress is urgent and relevant. In this study, an RNA-seq analysis was conducted to study the effect of drought on wheat transcriptome changes during reproductive stages under field conditions. Our results indicated that drought stress during early reproductive periods had a more severe impact on wheat development, gene expression and yield than drought stress during flowering. In total, 115,656 wheat genes were detected, including 309 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) which responded to drought at various developmental stages. These DEGs were involved in many critical processes including floral development, photosynthetic activity and stomatal movement. At early developmental stages, the proteins of drought-responsive DEGs were mainly located in the nucleus, peroxisome, mitochondria, plasma membrane and chloroplast, indicating that these organelles play critical roles in drought tolerance in wheat. Furthermore, the validation of five DEGs confirmed their responsiveness to drought under different genetic backgrounds. Functional verification of DEGs of interest will occur in our subsequent research. Collectively, the results of this study not only advanced our understanding of wheat transcriptome changes under drought stress during early reproductive stages but also provided useful targets to manipulate drought tolerance in wheat at different development stages.
干旱是一种主要的非生物胁迫，限制了全球小麦产量。为确保快速增长的世界人口的粮食安全，提高干旱胁迫下的小麦产量迫在眉睫且意义重大。在本研究中，进行了RNA测序分析，以研究田间条件下干旱对小麦生殖阶段转录组变化的影响。我们的结果表明，生殖早期的干旱胁迫对小麦发育、基因表达和产量的影响比开花期的干旱胁迫更为严重。总共检测到115,656个小麦基因，其中包括309个在不同发育阶段对干旱有响应的差异表达基因（DEG）。这些DEG参与了许多关键过程，包括花发育、光合活性和气孔运动。在发育早期，干旱响应DEG的蛋白质主要位于细胞核、过氧化物酶体、线粒体、质膜和叶绿体中，表明这些细胞器在小麦耐旱性中起关键作用。此外，对五个DEG的验证证实了它们在不同遗传背景下对干旱的响应。后续研究将对感兴趣的DEG进行功能验证。总体而言，本研究结果不仅加深了我们对小麦生殖早期干旱胁迫下转录组变化的理解，还为在不同发育阶段调控小麦耐旱性提供了有用的靶点。
