Transcriptomics Analyses Reveal Wheat Responses to Drought Stress during Reproductive Stages under Field Conditions

Abstract

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.

Variation Among Spring Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) Genotypes in Response to the Drought Stress. II—Root System Structure

“…Drought stress tolerance as a polygenic trait involves the expression of many sets of genes governing morpho-physiological traits, including root architecture [59][60][61]. The meta-analytical approach and analysis of multiple transcriptomic data have uncovered many transcription regulators and key genes.…”

“…The predominant role was attributed to abscisic acid (ABA), ethylene, auxins, and cytokinins. They are key regulators of complex heat-drought stress genetic networks in wheat [59,61,62,66]. ABA is important for early response to drought stress, but its high content in roots is not beneficial under prolonged and severe stress.…”

Transcriptome profiling of abiotic responses to heat, cold, salt, and osmotic stress of Capsicum annuum L.

“…Currently, transcriptome data analyses of plants are performed in various organisms under diverse conditions, including exposure to abiotic stresses. Most transcriptome studies involving abiotic stresses have been performed in model plants, with a few studies examining crops treated with one or two different stresses at a certain plant development stage [2][3][4][5][6][7][8] . Therefore, limited comparative transcriptome analyses for plants responding to different abiotic stresses have been performed.…”

Omics Approaches for Engineering Wheat Production under Abiotic Stresses

“…These expression profiles are also prove useful in wheat drought stress by examining their metabolic processes. Ma et al[69] conducted an RNA-seq analysis to analyze the effect of drought on wheat genome during reproductive stages. Salt stress responsive gene networks and functional annotation was identified by differential root transcriptome analysis which prove to be helpful in understanding the process and genes role in salt tolerance as analyzed by Goyal et al[70].…”