Meta-analysis highlights the key drought responsive genes in genes: PEPC and TaSAG7 are hubs response networks

BACKGROUND: Wheat is the most important cereal. One of the environmental stresses is drought that harm the production of many cereals and every year due to low rainfall and frequent droughts, the need to produce plants resistant to this stress is felt. Therefore, identification and evaluation of the genes involved in the production of this resistance in plants are of great importance. By identifying these genes and changing their expression, it is possible to produce resistant plants that can tolerate dehydration and drought, with at least a qualitative and quantitative reduction in yield. RESULTS: Based on the meta-analysis results obtained in this study, in resistant cultivars ~ 4% (2394/61290) of the probe IDs decreased and ~ 4.5% (2670/61290) increased expression, furthermore in susceptible cultivars ~ 7% (4183/61290) of probe IDs decreased and ~ 6% (3591/61290) increased expression (P value ≤ 0.05). List of up- and downregulated genes was revealed, among the expressed genes of transcription factors Myb3, ethylene-responsive 5a, MIKC-type MADS-box WM24B, and salinity inducible ERF4 in resistant cultivars and transcription factors WRKY15, MADS-box TaAGL8, WRKY39, and Myb in susceptible cultivars, they showed a significant increase in expression, these transcription factors are of great importance in drought stress. Among them, ethylene responsive 5a in resistant cultivars by 3 times and Myb in susceptible cultivars by 2.6 times have shown the highest expression change. Using Cytoscape Hub software, the Phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase (PEPC) and lyase isocitrate (TaSAG7) genes, which have significantly different expressions in resistant and susceptible wheat cultivars. PEPC and TaSAG7 genes were upregulated in resistant wheat cultivars as well as down regulated in susceptible cultivars. Also, the qPCR results of selected genes were consistent with the outcomes of the meta-analysis. CONCLUSIONS: All microarray data were collected from the NCBI Gene Expression Omnibus site. Libraries with drought-tolerant and susceptible cultivars for wheat were considered under the stress and control conditions from whole leaf tissue. By meta-analysis combined the purposeful results of multiple experiments, and found list of genes expressed in reverse between the two cultivars. These genes can distinguish between different susceptible and resistant wheat cultivars. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s43141-022-00395-4.