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Heat stress is a major limiting factor for global wheat production and causes dramatic yield loss worldwide. The TaMBF1c gene is upregulated in response to heat stress in wheat. Understanding the molecular mechanisms associated with heat stress responses will pave the way to improve wheat thermotolerance. Through CRISPR/Cas9-based gene editing, polysome profiling coupled with RNA-sequencing analysis, and protein-protein interactions, we show that TaMBF1c conferred heat response via regulating a specific gene translation in wheat. The results showed that TaMBF1c is evolutionarily conserved in diploid, tetraploid and hexaploid wheat species, and its knockdown and knockout lines show increased heat sensitivity. TaMBF1c is colocalized with the stress granule complex and interacts with TaG3BP. TaMBF1c affects the translation efficiency of a subset of heat responsive genes, which are significantly enriched in the 'sequence-specific DNA binding' term. Moreover, gene expression network analysis demonstrated that TaMBF1c is closely associated with the translation of heat shock proteins. Our findings reveal a contribution of TaMBF1c in regulating the heat stress response via the translation process, and provide a new target for improving heat tolerance in wheat breeding programs., (© 2021 The Authors. New Phytologist © 2021 New Phytologist Foundation.)

Dwarf bunt of wheat, which is caused by Tilletia controversa J.G. Kühn, is a soil-borne disease which may lead up to an 80% loss of yield together with degradation of the quality of the wheat flour by production of a fishy smell. In this study, high-throughput sequencing technology was employed to characterize the microbial composition of wheat tissues (roots, spikes, first stem under the ear, and stem base) and rhizosphere soil of wheat varieties that are resistant and susceptible to T. controversa. We observed that the soil fungal community abundance and diversity were higher in resistant varieties than in susceptible varieties in both inoculated and uninoculated wheat, and the abundances of Sordariomycetes and Mortierellomycetes increased in the resistant varieties infected with T. controversa, while the abundances of Dothideomycetes and Bacteroidia increased in the susceptible varieties. Regarding the bacteria present in wheat tissues, the abundances of Chloroflexi, Bacteroidetes, Gemmatimonadetes, Verrucomicrobia and Acidobacteria in the ear and the first stem under the ear were higher than those in other tissues. Our results indicated that the abundances of Sordariomycetes, Mortierellomycetes, Leotiomycetes, Chryseobacterium and Massilia were higher in T. controversa-infected resistant varieties than in their controls, that Dothideomycetes, Bacteroidia, Nocardioides and Pseudomonas showed higher abundances in T. controversa-infected susceptible varieties, and that Curtobacterium, Exiguobacterium, Planococcus, and Pantoea may have higher abundances in both T. controversa-infected susceptible and resistant varieties than in their own controls.

Background: Dwarf bunt, which is caused by Tilletia controversa Kühn, is a soilborne and seedborne disease that occurs worldwide and can lead to 70% or even total losses of wheat crops. However, very little information is available about the histological changes that occur in dwarf bunt-resistant and dwarf bunt-susceptible wheat plants at the tillering stage (Z21). In this study, we used scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy to characterize the histological changes at this stage in resistant and susceptible wheat cultivars infected by T. controversa., Results: Using scanning electron microscopy, the root, stem, and leaf structures of resistant and susceptible cultivars were examined after T. controversa infection. The root epidermal and vascular bundles were more severely damaged in the susceptible T. controversa-infected plants than in the resistant plants. The stem cell and longitudinal sections were much more extensively affected in susceptible plants than in resistant plants after pathogen infection. However, slightly deformed mesophyll cells were observed in the leaves of susceptible plants. With transmission electron microscopy, we found that the cortical bundle cells and the cell contents and nuclei in the roots were more severely affected in the susceptible plants than in the resistant plants; in the stems and leaves, the nuclei, chloroplasts, and mesophyll cells changed significantly in the susceptible plants after fungal infection. Moreover, we found that infected susceptible and resistant plants were affected much more severely at the tillering stage (Z21) than at the seedling growth stage (Z13)., Conclusion: Histological changes in the wheat roots, stems and leaves were much more severe in T. controversa-infected susceptible plants than in infected resistant plants at the tillering stage (Z21).

Previously, we found an ethylene-responsive transcriptional co-activator, which was significantly induced by heat stress (HS) in both thermo-sensitive and thermo-tolerant wheat. The corresponding ORF was isolated from wheat, and named TaMBF1c (Multiprotein Bridging Factor1c). The deduced amino acid sequence revealed the presence of conserved MBF1 and helix-turn-helix domains at the N- and C-terminus, respectively, which were highly similar to rice ERTCA (Ethylene Response Transcriptional Co-Activator) and Arabidopsis MBF1c. The promoter region of TaMBF1c contained three heat shock elements (HSEs) and other stress-responsive elements. There was no detectable mRNA of TaMBF1c under control conditions, but the transcript was rapidly and significantly induced by heat stress not only at the seedling stage, but also at the flowering stage. It was also slightly induced by drought and H2O2 stresses, as well as by application of the ethylene synthesis precursor ACC, but not, however, by circadian rhythm, salt, ABA or MeJA treatments. Under normal temperatures, TaMBF1c-eGFP protein showed predominant nuclear localization with some levels of cytosol localization in the bombarded onion epidermal cells, but it was mainly detected in the nucleus with almost no eGFP signals in cytosol when the bombarded onion cells were cultured under high temperature conditions. Overexpression of TaMBF1c in yeast imparted tolerance to heat stress compared to cells expressing the vector alone. Most importantly, transgenic rice plants engineered to overexpress TaMBF1c showed higher thermotolerance than control plants at both seedling and reproductive stages. In addition, transcript levels of six Heat Shock Protein and two Trehalose Phosphate Synthase genes were higher in TaMBF1c transgenic lines than in wild-type rice upon heat treatment. Collectively, the present data suggest that TaMBF1c plays a pivotal role in plant thermotolerance and holds promising possibilities for improving heat tolerance in crops.

Key Message: QTLs controlling yield-related traits were mapped using a population derived from common wheat and Tibetan semi-wild wheat and they provided valuable information for using Tibetan semi-wild wheat in future wheat molecular breeding. Tibetan semi-wild wheat (Triticum aestivum ssp tibetanum Shao) is a kind of primitive hexaploid wheat and harbors several beneficial traits, such as tolerance to biotic and abiotic stresses. And as a wild relative of common wheat, heterosis of yield of the progeny between them was significant. This study focused on mapping QTLs controlling yield-related traits using a recombined inbred lines (RILs) population derived from a hybrid between a common wheat line NongDa3331 (ND3331) and the Tibetan semi-wild wheat accession Zang 1817. In nine location-year environments, a total of 148 putative QTLs controlling nine traits were detected, distributed on 19 chromosomes except for 1A and 2D. Single QTL explained the phenotypic variation ranging from 3.12 to 49.95%. Of these QTLs, 56 were contributed by Zang 1817. Some stable QTLs contributed by Zang 1817 were also detected in more than four environments, such as QPh-3A1, QPh-4B1 and QPh-4D for plant height, QSl-7A1 for spike length, QEp-4B2 for ears per plant, QGws-4D for grain weight per spike, and QTgw-4D for thousand grain weight. Several QTL-rich Regions were also identified, especially on the homoeologous group 4. The TaANT gene involved in floral organ development was mapped on chromosome 4A between Xksm71 and Xcfd6 with 0.8 cM interval, and co-segregated with the QTLs controlling floret number per spikelet, explaining 4.96-11.84% of the phenotypic variation. The current study broadens our understanding of the genetic characterization of Tibetan semi-wild wheat, which will enlarge the genetic diversity of yield-related traits in modern wheat breeding program.

Background: Biotic and abiotic stresses, such as powdery mildew infection and high temperature, are important limiting factors for yield and grain quality in wheat production. Emerging evidences suggest that long non-protein coding RNAs (npcRNAs) are developmentally regulated and play roles in development and stress responses of plants. However, identification of long npcRNAs is limited to a few plant species, such as Arabidopsis, rice and maize, no systematic identification of long npcRNAs and their responses to abiotic and biotic stresses is reported in wheat., Results: In this study, by using computational analysis and experimental approach we identified 125 putative wheat stress responsive long npcRNAs, which are not conserved among plant species. Among them, some were precursors of small RNAs such as microRNAs and siRNAs, two long npcRNAs were identified as signal recognition particle (SRP) 7S RNA variants, and three were characterized as U3 snoRNAs. We found that wheat long npcRNAs showed tissue dependent expression patterns and were responsive to powdery mildew infection and heat stress., Conclusion: Our results indicated that diverse sets of wheat long npcRNAs were responsive to powdery mildew infection and heat stress, and could function in wheat responses to both biotic and abiotic stresses, which provided a starting point to understand their functions and regulatory mechanisms in the future., (© 2011 Xin et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.)

Background: Wheat is a major crop in the world, and the high temperature stress can reduce the yield of wheat by as much as 15%. The molecular changes in response to heat stress are poorly understood. Using GeneChip Wheat Genome Array, we analyzed genome-wide gene expression profiles in the leaves of two wheat genotypes, namely, heat susceptible 'Chinese Spring' (CS) and heat tolerant 'TAM107' (TAM)., Results: A total of 6560 (approximately 10.7%) probe sets displayed 2-fold or more changes in expression in at least one heat treatment (false discovery rate, FDR, alpha = 0.001). Except for heat shock protein (HSP) and heat shock factor (HSF) genes, these putative heat responsive genes encode transcription factors and proteins involved in phytohormone biosynthesis/signaling, calcium and sugar signal pathways, RNA metabolism, ribosomal proteins, primary and secondary metabolisms, as well as proteins related to other stresses. A total of 313 probe sets were differentially expressed between the two genotypes, which could be responsible for the difference in heat tolerance of the two genotypes. Moreover, 1314 were differentially expressed between the heat treatments with and without pre-acclimation, and 4533 were differentially expressed between short and prolonged heat treatments., Conclusion: The differences in heat tolerance in different wheat genotypes may be associated with multiple processes and mechanisms involving HSPs, transcription factors, and other stress related genes. Heat acclimation has little effects on gene expression under prolonged treatments but affects gene expression in wheat under short-term heat stress. The heat stress responsive genes identified in this study will facilitate our understanding of molecular basis for heat tolerance in different wheat genotypes and future improvement of heat tolerance in wheat and other cereals.