Transcript expression profile of water-limited roots of hexaploid wheat (Triticum aestivum ‘Opata’)

Triticum aestivum ‘Opata’ is an elite hard red spring wheat that has been used as a parent of the ITMI (International Triticeae Mapping Inititative) mapping population and also in the production of synthetically derived hexaploid wheats, some of which (following selection) show increased drought tolerance relative to Opata. Here, we describe the response of Opata roots to water withholding, using physiological variables and oligonucleotide microarrays. We identified 394 distinct transcripts whose abundance differed (p ≤ 0.05) at least 1.5-fold between water-limited and control roots of Opata, of which 190 transcripts increased and 204 decreased following water limitation. In addition to previously characterized markers of abiotic stress and many genes of unknown function, we identified multiple putative glucanases and class III peroxidases as being particularly responsive to stress. We also compared these data to previously described microarray analyses of Opata’s more drought-tolerant, synthetic-derived progeny, and found a relatively high correlation (r = 0.7) between responsive transcripts in the two genotypes, despite differing physiological responses. Some of the transcripts that we confirmed by qRT-PCR as being differentially expressed between Opata and the more tolerant synthetic-derived genotype under stress include a class III peroxidase, an AP2-family transcription factor, and several transcripts of unknown function.