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Decoding the wheat awn transcriptome and overexpressing TaRca1β in rice for heat stress tolerance

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Role of Rubisco Activase in imparting thermotolerance to the photosynthetic apparatus under high temperature. Thus, to improve the grain filling, we need to fine tune these crucial enzymes and their regulation, which directly or indirectly affect spike photosynthesis.

Abstract

CO2 fixation in cereals crops like bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) is also contributed by ear photosynthesis beside the other organs like leaves or the flag leaf. 1000-grain weight of three Indian wheat cultivars (cvs.) PBW343, K7903, and HD2329 were calculated under three treatments until maturity stage (i.e. removal of flag leaf, removal of awns and shaded spikes). We observed that awn removal showed a significant decrease in 1000-grain weight in all cultivars. To delve deeper into the biological and molecular pathways taking place underlying the awn physiology, we conducted the awn transcriptome analysis of thermosusceptible Indian wheat cv. PBW343 under heat stress (HS) at 42 °C for 2 h using RNA-sequencing (RNA-seq). Differential expression analysis revealed, 160 transcripts, out of these, 143 transcripts were significantly upregulated and 17 transcripts were repressed under HS conditions. Of these Rca1β was selected for characterization and overexpression studies. Ectopic expression of TaRca1β in rice transgenics indicate a direct correlation with tolerance under HS conditions. TaRca1β provides a better photosynthate energy partitioning under HS with a significant reduction in the non-photochemical fluorescence quenching of the photosynthetic machinery.

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Acknowledgements

Authors are thankful to Department of Biotechnology and Department of Science &Technology-Fund for Improvement of S&T Infrastructure (DST-FIST), Government of India (Grant No. BT/PR9416/AGR/02/412/2007) for the financial support. We also thanks Dr. Jochen Kumlehn, Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetic and Crop Plant Research (IPK) Gatersleben for providing the IPKb vector set.

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  1. Department of Plant Molecular Biology, University of Delhi South Campus, Benito Juarez Road, New Delhi, 110021, India

    Chanderkant Chaudhary, Naveen Sharma & Paramjit Khurana

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  1. Chanderkant Chaudhary
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  3. Paramjit Khurana
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CK, NS: performed the experiments. CC, PK: written and formatted the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Paramjit Khurana.

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Chaudhary, C., Sharma, N. & Khurana, P. Decoding the wheat awn transcriptome and overexpressing TaRca1β in rice for heat stress tolerance. Plant Mol Biol 105, 133–146 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11103-020-01073-0

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