Journal
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MOLECULAR SCIENCES
Volume 23, Issue 14, Pages -Publisher
MDPI
DOI: 10.3390/ijms23147988
Keywords
acquired thermotolerance; combined stress; drought priming; HSPs; Triticum durum
Funding
- University of Salento
- University of Parma
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In this study, the effects of drought and heat stress on thermotolerance in durum wheat were investigated. The results showed that drought priming could induce the acquisition of thermotolerance in most cultivars. Proline accumulation and activation of heat shock proteins expression were also correlated to thermotolerance.
Durum wheat is strongly affected by climatic constraints such as high temperatures and drought, which frequently lead to yield reduction. Damages due to high temperatures are related to plant thermotolerance, a trait determined by two components: basal and acquired thermotolerance. In this study, the effect of drought and heat stress imposed singularly or sequentially was investigated in ten durum wheat cultivars (cvs) at the physiological and molecular level. The traits analyzed were cell membrane stability, relative water content, proline content, and expression level of several genes for heat shock proteins (HSPs). Our results indicate that drought priming can induce the acquisition of thermotolerance in most cultivars already classified as able to acquire thermotolerance by heat pre-treatment. Proline accumulation was correlated to cell membrane stability, meaning that the most thermotolerant cvs were able to accumulate higher levels of proline. Acquired thermotolerance is also due to the activation of HSP gene expression; similarly, pre-treatment with water stress was able to activate HSPs expression. The results reported indicate that water stress plays an important role in inducing thermotolerance, comparable to mild heat stress pre-treatment. This is the first report on the effect of drought stress on the acquisition of thermotolerance.
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