Role of light‐intensity‐dependent changes in thiol and amino acid metabolism in the adaptation of wheat to drought

Abstract

Light-intensity-dependent (low, normal and high) differences in thiol and amino acid metabolism during drought were compared in wheat seedlings. The drought-tolerant genotype (Plainsman) recovered better than the sensitive one (Cappelle Desprez) after the stress as shown by growth and photosynthetic parameters, the levels of which were greater in low and high light, respectively. Glutathione as an antioxidant contributed to this difference, since its level was twofold greater in Plainsman throughout the experiment. In addition, the accumulation of most amino acids even increased in normal light during drought in Plainsman, while such change occurred in Cappelle Desprez only in high light. The higher contents of proline, glutamate and γ-aminobutyrate are especially important because of their involvement in the protection against drought.The transcription of certain genes related to amino acid and glutathione metabolism and various antioxidants was even induced by higher light intensities before drought, which can contribute to the subsequent increase in the amount of the corresponding metabolites during stress. Increase in light intensity activated various protective mechanisms including greater accumulation of glutathione, proline and other amino acids during drought, which contributed to the efficient recovery of wheat after stress. K E Y W O R D S drought, free amino acids, glutathione, light intensity, photosynthesis, wheatThis is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Comparison of Light Condition-Dependent Differences in the Accumulation and Subcellular Localization of Glutathione in Arabidopsis and Wheat

“…These light-dependent processes also contribute to the successful adaptation to stress conditions [ 30 ]. Hence, light intensity-dependent changes in GSH content affected the adaptation of wheat to drought [ 31 ]. The present results about the effect of spectrum on glutathione can be useful for the selection of more adaptable crop genotypes, which can be cultivated at high altitudes and at latitudes having special spectral conditions [ 1 ].…”

“…Reverse transcription was performed using M-MLV Reverse Transcriptase and oligo(dT)15 primer (Promega, Dübendorf, Switzerland) as described by the manufacturer. The gene expression levels were determined by real-time qRT-PCR using a CFX96 thermocycler (Bio-Rad, Dreieich, Germany) with the primers summarized in Table S2 (own design, [ 4 , 31 , 33 ]). For comparison, fold change (2ΔΔCq, where ΔCq = Cq(ref) − Cq(target)) was determined [ 47 ] using actin2 and Ta30797 ( similar to phosphogluconate dehydrogenase protein) gene reference in Arabidopsis and wheat, respectively [ 48 , 49 ].…”

Differences in the light‐dependent changes of the glutathione metabolism during cold acclimation in wheat varieties with different freezing tolerance

“…This effect greatly contributes to the induction of the cold acclimation process by high light intensity (Janda et al, 2014). Increased light intensity also improved the drought tolerance in wheat through the activation of various protective mechanisms including greater accumulation of proline and other amino acids (Gyugos et al, 2019).…”

Polyamine Metabolism under Different Light Regimes in Wheat

“…In the second experiment, plants were grown under different light intensity conditions: at 500 (elevated light: L1), 250 (medium light: L2) and 50 (low light: L3) µmol m 2 s −1 LED light [75], at 22 • C/20 • C with a photoperiod of 16 h/8 h (day/night condition) and 75% relative humidity in Conviron PGR-15 plant growth chambers (Controlled Environments Ltd., Winnipeg, MB, Canada). The 7-day-old plants were treated with nutrition solution containing 0.3 mM PUT, SPD or SPM (this concentration and the duration of the treatments were chosen based on our previous results [9]).…”