Identification of Potential Genes Responsible for Thermotolerance in Wheat under High Temperature Stress

Wheat, a major worldwide staple food crop, is relatively sensitive to a changing environment, including high temperature. The comprehensive mechanism of heat stress response at the molecular level and exploitation of candidate tolerant genes are far from enough. Using transcriptome data, we analyzed the gene expression profiles of wheat under heat stress. A total of 1705 and 17 commonly differential expressed genes (DEGs) were identified in wheat grain and flag leaf, respectively, through transcriptome analysis. Gene Ontology (GO) and pathway enrichment were also applied to illustrate the functions and metabolic pathways of DEGs involved in thermotolerance of wheat grain and flag leaf. Furthermore, our data suggest that there may be a more complex molecular mechanism or tighter regulatory network in flag leaf than in grain under heat stress over time, as less commonly DEGs, more discrete expression profiles of genes (principle component analysis) and less similar pathway response were observed in flag leaf. In addition, we found that transcriptional regulation of zeatin, brassinosteroid and flavonoid biosynthesis pathways may play an important role in wheat’s heat tolerance. The expression changes of some genes were validated using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction and three potential genes involved in the flavonoid biosynthesis process were identified.