Diminishing water resources as a result of excessive use of water for irrigation and climate change posture a severe global threat to food security. Herein, an experiment was conducted to determine the selection criteria for drought-tolerant bread wheat genotypes at the seedling stage using morphological and photosynthetic pigmentation-related traits. A panel of 105 wheat landraces, historical Pakistani varieties, and advance breeding lines were evaluated under normal and drought stress using factorial completely randomized design. The root length, fresh weight, dry weight, cell membrane thermo-stability, and chlorophyll b were positively correlated among themselves under both normal and stress conditions. Hence, selection of any one of these traits enhances the performance of other traits. The shoot length was non-significant and negatively associated with all other studied characters except relative water content. The results suggested that selection for shoot length could not improve genetic gain for drought tolerance. Out of 10 principal components (PCs), the first three PCs were showed significant genetic variation under both conditions. The first three PCs showed 74.6% and 76% cumulative genetic variation under normal and drought conditions, respectively. Based on PCA, 10 drought-tolerant and five drought-susceptible genotypes were identified. Overall results suggested that selection for root length, fresh weight, dry weight, cell membrane thermo-stability, and chlorophyll b at the seedling stage would improve genetic gain for drought tolerance. The outperforming genotypes under drought stress conditions can be useful in future wheat breeding programs, and early selection for the traits recommended in this study will be effective for developing high-yielding and drought-tolerant wheat varieties.

The decrease in water resources due to the excessive use of water for irrigation purpose and climatic changes represents a serious world-wide threat to food security. In this regards, 50 wheat accessions were analyzed, using completely random factorial design at the seedlings stage under normal and drought stress conditions. Significant variation was detected among all accessions under both conditions. All characters studied showed variations in the mean values in water deficit environments in studied gemplasm at seedling stage. As seedling fresh weight, dry weight, relative water content, cell membrane thermo-stability, chlorophyll a & b were positively associated among themselves under drought conditions which showed the significance of these attribute for water deficit areas in future wheat breeding programs. Based on their performance, five accessions namely Aas-11, Chakwal-86, Pasban-90, Chakwal-97 and Kohistan-97 were selected as drought tolerant and three accessions namely Mairaj-08, Lasani-2008 and Gomal-2008 were selected as drought susceptible genotypes. The choice of wheat accessions based on the characteristics of the seedlings is informal, low-priced and less hassle. Likewise, the seedlings attributes exhibit moderate to high variation with an additive genetics effects on the environments. Best performance accessions under water deficit environment will be beneficial in future wheat breeding schemes and early screening for the attributes suggested in current experiment will be useful for producing best-yielded and drought-tolerance wheat genotypes to sustainable food security.

Genome-wide association study (GWAS) was performed for stomata- and yield-related attributes with high-density Illumina 90 K Infinium SNP (single nucleotide polymorphism) array in bread wheat to determine genetic potential of germplasm for scarce water resources with sustainable yield potential. Major yield and stomata attributes were phenotyped on a panel of Pakistani and foreign accessions grown in non-stressed and water shortage environments during two seasons. Highly significant variations were shown among accessions in both conditions for examined characteristics. Water shortage conditions reduced the overall wheat yield and strong positive correlation existed among stomatal frequency, leaf venation and grain yield per plant. Population structure analyses based on 90,000 SNP data classified the accessions into four sub-populations which indicated the presence of genetic variability. Marker-trait association (MTA) analyses revealed that 422 significant SNPs at p ≤ 10−3, after crossing the false discovery rate (FDR) <0.05 threshold, were linked with examined attributes. Pleiotropic loci (wsnp_Ex_c8913_14881924 and Tdurum_contig10598_304) were associated with flag leaf area (FLA), stomata size (SS), stomata frequency (SF), leaf venation (LV), number of grain per spike (NGS) and grain yield per plant (GYP), which were located on chromosome 4B and 6B at the positions 173.63cM and 229.64cM, respectively, under water shortage conditions. Pleotropic loci wsnp_Ex_c24167_33416760, wsnp_Ex_c5412_9564046 and Tdurum_contig81797_369 on chromosomes 7A, 2A and 4B at the positions 148.26cM, 261.05cM and 173.63cM, respectively, were significantly linked with stomata and yield indices such as FLA, SS, SF, LV, NGS and GYP under normal and water shortage conditions. The current experiment not only validated several MTAs for studied indices reported in other studies but also discovered novel MTAs significant under water shortage environments. Associated and significant SNPs will be useful in discovering novel genes underpinning water shortage tolerance in bread wheat for producing high-yielding and drought tolerant wheat varieties to fulfill the wheat demand for growing populations.

No abstract

Plants cope with thermo-stress by increased expression of heat shock genes. These genes encode various heat shock proteins (HSPs) which rapidly accumulate and protect plants following hasty heat stress. Heat shock transcription factors (HSFs) primarily regulate expression of HSP genes by deciphering conserved binding motifs in promoter region. We retrieved HSF genes of Arabidopsis and chickpea from the online data bases and analyzed their structure and properties using bioinformatics tools. Here, we reported 20 nonredundant genes encoding HSF domain containing proteins in chickpea. Comparative phylogenetic analysis of HSF genes with Arabidopsis revealed four major groups with several paralogous and orthologous genes. Gene localization studies showed that HSF genes are unevenly distributed across all of the eight chromosomes. Segmental duplications were principally involved in HSF gene family expansion during evolution. HSF genes predominantly contain a single intron. However, quite a few genes also retain two introns, which suggest gain of intron during the evolutionary process. Combined conserved-domain analysis of Arabidopsis and chickpea HSF proteins revealed presence of 19 most common domains. Comparison of conserved domains with phylogenetic tree has shown that some domains were present in a clade-specific manner. The presence of multiple conserved domains in HSF proteins suggested that the respective genes originate from duplication events. Our in-silico work may prove helpful in understanding the evolutionary pathways of HSFs in chickpea.

Dissecting the genetic basis of physiological and yield traits against tolerance to heat stress is an essential in wheat breeding programs to boost up the wheat yield for sustainable food security. Herein, a genome-wide association study (GWAS) was performed to reveal the genetic basis of heat tolerance using high-density Illumina 90K Infinium SNPs array through physiological and yield indices. These indices were phenotyped on a diverse panel of foreign and domestic genotypes of Pakistan, grown in normal and heat-stressed environments. Based on STRUCTURE analysis, the studied germplasm clustered into four sub-population. Highly significant variations with a range of moderate (58.3%) to high (77.8%) heritability was observed under both conditions. Strong positive correlation existed among physiological and yield related attributes. A total of 320 significant (-log10 P ≥ 3) marker-trait associations (MTAs) were identified for the observed characters. Out of them 169 and 151 MTAs were recorded in normal and heat stress environments, respectively. Among the MTA loci, three (RAC875_c103017_302, Tdurum_contig42087_1199, and Tdurum_contig46877_488 on chromosomes 4B, 6B, and 7B respectively), two (BobWhite_c836_422 and BS00010616_51) and three (Kukri_rep_c87210_361, D_GA8KES401BNLTU_253 and Tdurum_contig1015_131) on chromosomes 5A, 1B, and 3D at the positions 243.59cM, 77.82cM and 292.51cM) showed pleiotropic effects in studied traits under normal, heat-stressed and both conditions respectively. The present study not only authenticated the numerous previously reported MTAs for examined attributes but also revealed novel MTAs under heat-stressed conditions. Identified SNPs will be beneficial in determining the novel genes in wheat to develop the heat tolerant and best yielded genotypes to fulfill the wheat requirement for the growing population.

The economic value of wheat grain is determined by morphology, texture and size of grain. Very little knowledge is available about the genetic inheritance pattern of the physical characteristics of wheat grain. The mechanical properties of wheat kernel have direct or indirect link on the milling and baking quality of wheat. Six bread wheat genotypes/lines were crossed in all possible combinations in order to assess the physical properties. Additive type of gene action was involved in number of spikelets per spike, spike length, number of grains per spike, grain weight and grain area. Therefore, selection of superior plants can be done in early generations for development of better wheat genotypes. Grain yield per spike, grain width, grain length, grain height and grain sphericity having nonadditive type of gene actions clearly indicated that selection of superior plants should be postponed to later generations. The genotype 9481 was the best general combiner, while among the combining ability in most of the prominent traits. This study will be useful for wheat breeders to develop high yielding genotypes with better grain architecture to improve the milling and baking quality of bread wheat.

The decrease in water resources is a serious threat to food security world-wide. In this regard, a genome-wide association study (GWAS) was conducted to identify grain yield and quality-related genes/loci under normal and water-deficit conditions. Highly significant differences were exhibited among genotypes under both conditions for all studied traits. Water-deficit stress caused a reduction in grains yield and an increase in grains protein contents (GPC) and gluten contents (GLC). Population structure divided the 96 genotypes into four sub-populations. Out of 72 significant marker-trait associations (MTAs), 28 and 44 were observed under normal and water-deficit stress conditions, respectively. Pleiotropic loci (RAC875_s117925_244, BobWhite_c23828_341 and wsnp_CAP8_c334_304253) for yield and quality traits were identified on chromosomes 5A, 6B and 7B, respectively, under normal conditions. Under a water-deficit condition, the pleiotropic loci (Excalibur_c48047_90, Tdurum_contig100702_265 and BobWhite_c19429_95) for grain yield per plant (GYP), GPC and GLC were identified on chromosomes 3A, 4A and 7B, respectively. The pleiotropic loci (BS00063551_51 and RAC875_c28721_290) for GPC and GLC on chromosome 1B and 3A, respectively, were found under both conditions. Besides the validation of previously reported MTAs, some new MTAs were identified for flag leaf area (FLA), thousand grain weight (TGW), GYP, GPC and GLC under normal and water-deficit conditions. Twenty SNPs associated with the traits were mapped in the coding DNA sequence (CDS) of the respective candidate genes. The protein functions of the identified candidate genes were predicted and discussed. Isolation and characterization of the candidate genes, wherein, SNPs were mapped in CDS will result in discovering novel genes underpinning water-deficit tolerance in bread wheat.