Cultivar-specific high temperature stress responses in bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) associated with physicochemical traits and defense pathways

The increasing global temperature by 1 degrees C is estimated to reduce the harvest index in a crop by 6%, and this would certainly have negative impact on overall plant metabolism. Wheat is one of the most important crops with global annual production of over 600 million tonnes. We investigated an array of physicochemical and molecular indexes to unravel differential response of nine commercial wheat cultivars to high temperature stress (HTS). The reduced rate in relative water content, higher membrane stability, slow chlorophyll degradation and increased accumulation of proline and secondary metabolites ingrained higher thermotolerance in cv. Unnat Halna, among others. The altered expression of several stress-responsive genes, particularly the genes associated with photosynthesis, heat shock proteins and antioxidants impinge on the complexity of HTS-induced responses over different genetic backgrounds and connectivity of adaptive mechanisms. This may facilitate the targeted manipulation of metabolic routes in crops for agricultural and industrial exploitation. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.