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Journal of Integrative Agriculture
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Time-course transcriptomic information unravels the mechanisms of improved drought tolerance by drought-priming in wheat
Qing Li1, Zhuangzhuang Sun1, Zihan Jing1, Xiao Wang1#, Chuan Zhong1, Wenliang Wan2, Maguje Masa Malko1, Linfeng Xu2, Zhaofeng Li2, Qin Zhou1, Jian Cai1, Yingxin Zhong1, Mei Huang1, Dong Jiang1, 2#

1 National Technique Innovation Center for Regional Wheat Production/Key Laboratory of Crop Ecophysiology, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs /Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China

2 The Key Laboratory of Oasis Eco-agriculture, Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, Shihezi University, Shihezi 832003, China

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摘要  频发的干旱事件,尤其是发生在生殖生长阶段的干旱,严重限制了全球作物生产力。在生长前期进行适度的干旱锻炼是提高植物应对反复出现的重度干旱胁迫的有效策略,然而,其潜在的机制仍不清楚。 在本研究中,我们在营养生长阶段对小麦施加干旱锻炼,并在花后10天对其进行干旱胁迫, 随后利用在干旱锻炼结束时、恢复阶段以及干旱胁迫结束时采集的叶片样本进行转录组测序,同时结合植株表型和生理指标测定。研究发现,与未锻炼的植株相比,经干旱锻炼的小麦植株能保持较低的植株温度,较高的气孔开度和光合作用,从而导致后期干旱胁迫下小麦的千粒重和籽粒产量损失较少。有趣的是,动态转录组学分析发现了416个基因,其中27个转录因子(如MYBNACHSF),可能都与锻炼诱导的小麦耐旱性的提升密切相关。此外,响应干旱锻炼的候选基因呈现出六种时间表达模式,并显著富集于植物激素信号转导、淀粉和蔗糖代谢、精氨酸和脯氨酸代谢、肌醇磷酸代谢以及蜡质合成等几种与胁迫响应密切相关的通路中。总之,该研究结果为揭示前期干旱锻炼可有效提升小麦长期耐旱性的生理和分子机制提供了新见解,为应对全球变暖背景下日益增加的非生物胁迫和确保粮食安全提供了潜在的方法。

Abstract  Frequent drought events especially those occur in the reproductive stages severely restrict global crop productivity.  Moderate drought priming during the earlier growth stages is a promising strategy for plants to resist to recurrent severe drought stress.  However, the underlying mechanisms remain unclear.  Here, we subjected wheat plants to drought priming during the vegetative growth stage and to severe drought stress at 10 days after anthesis.  We then collected leaf samples at the ends of the drought priming, recovery periods, and at the ends of drought stress for transcriptome sequencing in combination with phenotypic and physiological determination.  The drought-primed wheat plant maintained a lower plant temperature, with higher stomatal openness and photosynthesis, thereby resulting in much less 1,000-grain weight and grain yield losses under the later drought stress than the non-primed plants.  Interestingly, 416 genes of which 27 transcription factors (e.g., MYB, NAC, HSF) seemed to be closely related to the improved drought tolerance as indicated by the dynamic transcriptome analysis.  Moreover, the candidate genes showed six temporal expression patterns and significantly enriched in several stress response related pathways such as plant hormone signal transduction, starch and sucrose metabolism, arginine and proline metabolism, inositol phosphate metabolism, and wax synthesis.  These findings illustrate new insights into physiological and molecular mechanisms of the long-term effects of early drought priming to effectively improve drought tolerance in wheat, which proved potential approaches to challenge the increasing abiotic stresses and secure food safety under global warming scenarios.
Keywords:  wheat              drought priming              drought tolerance              RNA-Seq              gene expression pattern  
Online: 26 April 2024  
Fund: This work was supported by the projects of National Key Research and Development Program of China (2023YFD2300202), National Natural Science Foundation of China (32272213, 32030076, U1803235, and 32021004), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (XUEKEN2023013), the Jiangsu Innovation Support Program for International Science and Technology Cooperation Project, China (BZ2023049), the Jiangsu Agriculture Science and Technology Innovation Fund, China (CX(22)1006), the China Agriculture Research System (CARS-03), and the Jiangsu Collaborative Innovation Center for Modern Crop Production, China (JCIC-MCP).
About author:  Qing Li, E-mail: qingli@njau.edu.cn; #Correspondence Dong Jiang, Tel: +86-25-84399627, E-mail: jiangd@njau.edu.cn; Xiao Wang, Tel: +86-25-84399627, E-mail: xiaowang@njau.edu.cn

Cite this article: 

Qing Li, Zhuangzhuang Sun, Zihan Jing, Xiao Wang, Chuan Zhong, Wenliang Wan, Maguje Masa Malko, Linfeng Xu, Zhaofeng Li, Qin Zhou, Jian Cai, Yingxin Zhong, Mei Huang, Dong Jiang. 2024. Time-course transcriptomic information unravels the mechanisms of improved drought tolerance by drought-priming in wheat. Journal of Integrative Agriculture, Doi:10.1016/j.jia.2024.03.081

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