Open AccessUnraveling salinity stress responses in ancestral and neglected wheat species at early growth stage: A baseline for utilization in future wheat improvement programs
Author(s) -
Jafar Ahmadi,
Alireza Pour-Aboughadareh,
Sedigheh Fabriki Ourang,
Pezhman Khalili,
Péter Poczai
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
physiology and molecular biology of plants/physiology and molecular biology of plants
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.754
H-Index - 35
eISSN - 0971-5894
pISSN - 0974-0430
DOI - 10.1007/s12298-020-00768-4
Subject(s) - apx , salinity , shoot , biology , soil salinity , horticulture , botany , antioxidant , catalase , ecology , biochemistry
In this study, we analyzed the behavior of several neglected, ancestral, and domesticated wheat genotypes, including Ae. triuncialis , Ae. neglecta , Ae. caudata , Ae. umbellulata , Ae. tauschii , Ae. speltoides , T. boeoticum , T. urartu , T. durum , and T. aestivum under control and salinity stress to assess the mechanisms involved in salinity tolerance. Physiological and biochemical traits including root/shoot biomasses, root/shoot ion concentrations, activity of antioxidant enzymes APX, SOD, and GXP, and the relative expression of TaHKT1;5 , TaSOS1 , APX , GXP , and MnSOD genes were measured. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) revealed significant effects of the salinity treatments and genotypes for all evaluated traits. Salinity stress (350 mM NaCl) significantly decreased root/shoot biomasses, K + concentration in root/shoot, and root/shoot K + /Na + ratios. In contrast, salinity stress significantly increased Na + concentration in root and shoot, activity of antioxidant enzymes (APX, SOD, and GPX) and relative expression of salt tolerance-related genes ( TaHKT1;5 , TaSOS1 , APX , GPX , and MnSOD ). Based on heat map and principal component analysis, the relationships among physiological traits and relative expression of salt-responsive genes were investigated. Remarkably, we observed a significant association between the relative expression of TaHKT1;5 with root K + concentration and K + /Na + ratio and with TaSOS1. Taken together, our study revealed that two neglected ( Ae. triuncialis ) and ancestral ( Ae. tauschii ) wheat genotypes responded better to salinity stress than other genotypes. Further molecular tasks are therefore essential to specify the pathways linked with salinity tolerance in these genotypes.