Retracted: Cytosolic glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase 2/5/6 increase drought tolerance via stomatal movement and reactive oxygen species scavenging in wheat

Drought is a major threat to wheat growth and crop productivity. However, there has been only limited success in developing drought-hardy cultivars. This lack of progress is due, at least in part, to a lack of understanding of the molecular mechanisms of drought tolerance in wheat. Here, we evaluated the potential role of three cytosolic glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenases (TaGAPC2/5/6) under drought stress in wheat and Arabidopsis. We found that TaGAPC2/5/6 all positively responded to drought stress via reactive oxygen species (ROS) scavenging and stomatal movement. The results of yeast co-transformation and electrophoretic mobility shift assay showed that TaWRKY33 acted as a direct regulator of TaGAPC2/5/6 genes. The dual luciferase reporter assay indicated that TaWRKY33 positively activated the expression of TaGAPC2/5/6. The results of bimolecular fluorescence complementation and yeast two-hybrid system demonstrated that TaGAPC2/5/6 interacted with phospholipase Dδ (PLDδ). We then demonstrated that TaGAPC2/5/6 positively promoted the activity of TaPLDδ in vitro and in vivo. Furthermore, lower PLDδ activity in RNAi wheat could lead to less PA accumulation, causing higher stomatal aperture sizes under drought stress. In summary, our results establish a new positive regulatory mechanism of TaGAPCs which helps wheat fine-tune their drought responses.     

Selenium (Se) Seed Priming Induced Growth and Biochemical Changes in Wheat Under Water Deficit Conditions

Insufficient stand establishment at early growth stages in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) due to drought stress is a major problem that limits overall efficiency and yield of crop. Priming of seed is an effective method for raising seed performance and improving tolerance of crops to abiotic stresses especially drought. The seeds of two local wheat cultivars (Kohistan-97 and Pasban-90) were soaked in distilled water or sodium selenate solutions of 25, 50, 75, and 100 μM for 1/2 or 1 h at 25 °C and later re-dried to their original moisture levels before sowing. One-hour priming significantly increased root length stress tolerance index, dry matter stress tolerance index, and total biomass of seedlings; however, no significant effect of changing duration of Se seed priming was observed on plant height stress tolerance index and shoot/root ratio. Among cultivars, Kohistan-97 was found to be more responsive to Se seed treatment as 1 h priming at 100 μM significantly increased its total biomass by 43 % as compared to control treatment. Although biomass of seedlings was not affected with Se seed priming under normal conditions, but it increased significantly with increase in rates of Se under drought stress conditions. One-hour priming at 75 μM increased the total sugar content and total free amino acids in both wheat cultivars. A more significant decrease in soluble proteins of seedlings was observed by 1 h priming than 1/2 h priming under drought stress conditions.