Skip to main content
ARS Home » Midwest Area » St. Paul, Minnesota » Cereal Disease Lab » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #353359
Research Project: Cereal Rust: Pathogen Biology and Host Resistance

Location: Cereal Disease Lab

Title: Comparative analysis of transcriptome in two wheat genotypes with contrasting levels of drought tolerance

Author
item KUMAR, JITENDRA - University Of Minnesota
item GUNAPATI, SAMATHA - Central Agricultural University
item Kianian, Shahryar
item SINGH, SUDHIR - Agricultural Research Institute Of India

Submitted to: Protoplasma
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 3/5/2018
Publication Date: 9/1/2018
Citation: Kumar, J., Gunapati, S., Kianian, S., Singh, S.P. 2018. Comparative analysis of transcriptome in two wheat genotypes with contrasting levels of drought tolerance. Protoplasma. 255(5):1487-1504. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00709-018-1237-x.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00709-018-1237-x

Interpretive Summary: Drought is a major abiotic stress that affects the growth and development of plants and thus limits crops’ production and yield. Growth and survival of plants is highly dependent on the availability of water more than other factors. Due to global climate change, drought has become one of the most challenging among the environmental stresses. Microarray is a high throughput gene expression analysis technique that has been extensively utilized to examine transcriptome related to different traits in wheat. We used Affymetrix GeneChip® Wheat Genome Arrays to examine the transcriptome changes of the two contrasting genotypes, C306 and WL711. The study identified several differentially expressed transcripts in control and drought conditions in the contrasting genotypes, which furthers our understanding of molecular mechanism of drought tolerance in wheat.

Technical Abstract: Drought tolerance is a complex trait that is governed by multiple genes. To identify the potential candidate genes, comparative analysis of drought stress-responsive transcriptome between drought-tolerant (Triticum aestivum Cv. C306) and drought-sensitive (Triticum aestivum Cv. WL711) genotypes was performed, using Affymetrix GeneChip® Wheat Genome Array. Both genotypes exhibited a diverse global transcriptional response under normal and drought conditions. Gene ontology (GO) analysis suggested that drought tolerance of C306 was likely due to the enhanced expression of enzyme, hormone, stress-responsive, transcription factor and secondary metabolism genes in drought condition. Pathway analysis revealed significant induction or repression of genes involved in nucleic acid synthesis, protein synthesis and transport in C306, in comparison to WL711. Significant up-regulation of stress-responsive, enzyme and hormone metabolism pathway observed in C306 under drought appears to be in good agreement with high drought tolerance of this genotype.