Molecular and genetic perspectives of cold tolerance in wheat

Environmental variation is the most crucial problem as it is causing food insecurity and negatively impacts food availability, utilization, assessment, and stability. Wheat is the largest and extensively cultivated staple food crop for fulfilling global food requirements. Abiotic stresses including salinity, heavy metal toxicity, drought, extreme temperatures, and oxidative stresses being the primary cause of productivity loss are a serious threat to agronomy. Cold stress is a foremost ecological constraint that is extremely influencing plant development, and yield. It is extremely hampering the propagative development of plant life. The structure and function of plant cells depend on the cell's immune system. The stresses due to cold, affect fluid in the plasma membrane and change it into crystals or a solid gel phase. Plants being sessile in nature have evolved progressive systems that permit them to acclimatize the cold stress at the physiological as well as molecular levels. The phenomenon of acclimatisation of plants to cold stress has been investigated for the last 10 years. Studying cold tolerance is critical for extending the adaptability zones of perennial grasses. In the present review, we have elaborated the current improvement of cold tolerance in plants from molecular and physiological viewpoints, such as hormones, the role of the posttranscriptional gene, micro RNAs, ICE-CBF-COR signaling route in cold acclimatization and how they are stimulating the expression of underlying genes encoding osmoregulatory elements and strategies to improve cold tolerance in wheat

Genome-wide analysis of heavy metal ATPases (HMAs) in Poaceae species and their potential role against copper stress in Triticum aestivum

Abstract Plants require copper for normal growth and development and have evolved an efficient system for copper management based on transport proteins such as P1B-ATPases, also known as heavy metal ATPases (HMAs). Here, we report HMAs in eleven different Poaceae species, including wheat. Furthermore, the possible role of wheat HMAs in copper stress was investigated. BlastP searches identified 27 HMAs in wheat, and phylogenetic analysis based on the Maximum Likelihood method demonstrated a separation into four distinct clades. Conserved motif analysis, domain identification, gene structure, and transmembrane helices number were also identified for wheat HMAs using computational tools. Wheat seedlings grown hydroponically were subjected to elevated copper and demonstrated toxicity symptoms with effects on fresh weight and changes in expression of selected HMAs TaHMA7, TaHMA8, and TaHMA9 were upregulated in response to elevated copper, suggesting a role in wheat copper homeostasis. Further investigations on these heavy metal pumps can provide insight into strategies for enhancing crop heavy metal tolerance in the face of heavy metal pollution

Genome-wide analysis of heavy metal ATPases (HMAs) in Poaceae species and their potential role against copper stress in Triticum aestivum

Plants require copper for normal growth and development and have evolved an efficient system for copper management based on transport proteins such as P1B-ATPases, also known as heavy metal ATPases (HMAs). Here, we report HMAs in eleven different Poaceae species, including wheat. Furthermore, the possible role of wheat HMAs in copper stress was investigated. BlastP searches identified 27 HMAs in wheat, and phylogenetic analysis based on the Maximum Likelihood method demonstrated a separation into four distinct clades. Conserved motif analysis, domain identification, gene structure, and transmembrane helices number were also identified for wheat HMAs using computational tools. Wheat seedlings grown hydroponically were subjected to elevated copper and demonstrated toxicity symptoms with effects on fresh weight and changes in expression of selected HMAs TaHMA7, TaHMA8, and TaHMA9 were upregulated in response to elevated copper, suggesting a role in wheat copper homeostasis. Further investigations on these heavy metal pumps can provide insight into strategies for enhancing crop heavy metal tolerance in the face of heavy metal pollution