Transcriptome analysis of bread wheat leaves in response to salt stress

Abstract

Salinity is one of the main abiotic stresses limiting crop productivity. In the current study, the transcriptome of wheat leaves in an Iranian salt-tolerant cultivar (Arg) was investigated in response to salinity stress to identify salinity stress-responsive genes and mechanisms. More than 114 million reads were generated from leaf tissues by the Illumina HiSeq 2500 platform. An amount of 81.9% to 85.7% of reads could be mapped to the wheat reference genome for different samples. The data analysis led to the identification of 98819 genes, including 26700 novel transcripts. A total of 4290 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were recognized, comprising 2346 up-regulated genes and 1944 down-regulated genes. Clustering of the DEGs utilizing Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) indicated that transcripts associated with phenylpropanoid biosynthesis, transporters, transcription factors, hormone signal transduction, glycosyltransferases, exosome, and MAPK signaling might be involved in salt tolerance. The expression patterns of nine DEGs were investigated by quantitative real-time PCR in Arg and Moghan3 as the salt-tolerant and susceptible cultivars, respectively. The obtained results were consistent with changes in transcript abundance found by RNA-sequencing in the tolerant cultivar. The results presented here could be utilized for salt tolerance enhancement in wheat through genetic engineering or molecular breeding.

Plant Growth Stimulators Improve Two Wheat Cultivars Salt-Tolerance: Insights into Their Physiological and Nutritional Responses

“…Wheat constitutes pivotal position for ensuring food and nutritional security; however, rapidly rising soil and water salinity pose a serious threat to its production globally. Salinity stress negatively affects the growth and development of wheat resulting in restrained grain yield and quality [ 30 , 31 ]. Hence, improving wheat salt tolerance and exploiting arable areas of saline soils are becoming the most important scientific research and agricultural practices.…”

“…Among various food crops, wheat ( Triticum aestivum L.) is a staple food in 30% of the world. However, it faces severe losses in its productivity due to salt stress [ 30 , 31 ]. Development of salt-tolerant wheat cultivars adapted to saline conditions is the most effective and economic strategy to combat this detrimental phenomenon.…”

Spermine-Salicylic Acid Interplay Restrains Salt Toxicity in Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.)

“…It is a complex abiotic stress that causes nutritional imbalances, particular ionic effects, and osmotic stress. For defense, plants minimize the entry of salt ions into the cytoplasm and/or enhance the synthesis of osmolytes, antioxidants, and phytohormones [ 2 , 3 , 4 ]. Salt stress also induces the over-production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) causing oxidative stress that impairs cellular homeostasis.…”

Comparative Analysis of Physiological, Enzymatic, and Transcriptomic Responses Revealed Mechanisms of Salt Tolerance and Recovery in Tritipyrum

“…In recent years, RNA-seq analysis based DEGs and candidate gene identification has been used to study salt tolerance in numerous plants, including Arabidopsis ( Sako et al, 2021 ), rice ( Chandran et al, 2019 ), bread wheat ( Amirbakhtiar et al, 2021 ), Chinese cabbage ( Li et al, 2021 ), drought/salt-tolerant Caragana korshinskii ( Li et al, 2016 ), a model halophytic Chenopodium quinoa ( Ruiz et al, 2019 ), Cenostigma pyramidale ( Frosi et al, 2021 ), and Ricinus communis ( Lei et al, 2021 ). These studies have identified abundant DEGs, candidate upregulated genes, and the functional enrichment of GO terms and pathways related to salt stress responses in plants.…”