RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Wild emmer introgressions alter root-to-shoot growth dynamics in response to water stress
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 2020.06.17.157461
DO 10.1101/2020.06.17.157461
A1 Harel Bacher
A1 Feiyu Zhu
A1 Tian Gao
A1 Kan Liu
A1 Balpreet K Dhatt
A1 Tala Awada
A1 Chi Zhang
A1 Assaf Distelfeld
A1 Hongfeng Yu
A1 Zvi Peleg
A1 Harkamal Walia
YR 2020
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/12/29/2020.06.17.157461.abstract
AB Water deficit is a major limiting factor for wheat (Triticum sp.) development and productivity. One approach to increase water stress adaptation in wheat is incorporating novel alleles from the drought-adapted wheat progenitor, wild emmer (T. turgidum ssp. dicoccoides). We explored this idea in the context of vegetative growth by examining the phenotypic consequence of a series of wild emmer (acc. Zavitan) introgressions into elite durum wheat (cv. Svevo) under water-limited conditions. Using image-based phenotyping we cataloged divergent (from Svevo) growth responses to water stress ranging from high plasticity to high stability among the introgression lines. We identified an introgression line (IL20) that exhibits a highly plastic response to water stress by shifting its root-to-shoot biomass ratio for detailed characterization. By combining genotypic information with root transcriptome analysis, we propose several candidate genes (including a root-specific kinase) that can confer the shoot-to-root carbon resource allocation in IL20 under water stress. Discovery of high plasticity trait in IL20 in response to water stress highlights the potential of wild introgressions for enhancing stress adaptation via mechanisms that may be absent or rare in elite breeding material.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.