Drought escape (DE) is a classical adaptive mechanism which involves rapid plant development to enable the completion of the full life-cycle prior to a coming drought event. This strategy is widely used in populations of native plants, and is also applicable to cereal crops such as wheat. Early flowering time and a shorter vegetative phase can be very important for wheat production in conditions of terminal drought since this can minimize exposure to dehydration during the sensitive flowering and post-anthesis grain filling periods. A gradual shift toward early flowering has been observed over the last century of wheat breeding in countries with a Mediterranean-type climate and frequent terminal drought. This trend is predicted to continue for wheat production in the coming years in response to global climate warming. The advantage of early flowering wheat is apparent under conditions of impending terminal drought, and modern varieties are significantly more productive due to minimization of the risk associated with drought stress. Under favorable conditions, a short vegetative phase can result in reduced plant biomass due to the reduction in time available for photosynthetic production and seed nutrient accumulation. However, high yield potential has been reported for the development of both shallow and deep roots, representing plasticity in response to drought in combination with the early flowering trait. Wheat productivity can be high both in well-watered and drought-affected field trials, where an efficient strategy of DE was associated with quick growth, yield potential and water use efficiency. Therefore, early flowering provides a promising strategy for the production of advanced drought-adapted wheat cultivars.

A panel of 89 local commercial cultivars of bread wheat was tested in field trials in the dry conditions of Northern Kazakhstan. Two distinct groups of cultivars (six cultivars in each group), which had the highest and the lowest grain yield under drought were selected for further experiments. A dehydration test conducted on detached leaves indicated a strong association between rates of water loss in plants from the first group with highest grain yield production in the dry environment relative to the second group. Modern high-throughput Amplifluor Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP) technology was applied to study allelic variations in a series of drought-responsive genes using 19 SNP markers. Genotyping of an SNP in the TaDREB5 (DREB2-type) gene using the Amplifluor SNP marker KATU48 revealed clear allele distribution across the entire panel of wheat accessions, and distinguished between the two groups of cultivars with high and low yield under drought. Significant differences in expression levels of TaDREB5 were revealed by qRT-PCR. Most wheat plants from the first group of cultivars with high grain yield showed slight up-regulation in the TaDREB5 transcript in dehydrated leaves. In contrast, expression of TaDREB5 in plants from the second group of cultivars with low grain yield was significantly down-regulated. It was found that SNPs did not alter the amino acid sequence of TaDREB5 protein. Thus, a possible explanation is that alternative splicing and up-stream regulation of TaDREB5 may be affected by SNP, but these hypotheses require additional analysis (and will be the focus of future studies).

Two groups of six spring bread wheat varieties with either high or low grain yield under the dry conditions of Central and Northern Kazakhstan were selected for analysis. Experiments were set up with the selected wheat varieties in controlled environments as follows: (1) slowly progressing drought imposed on plants in soil, (2) rapid dehydration of whole plants grown in hydroponics, (3) dehydration of detached leaves, and (4) ABA treatment of whole plants grown in hydroponics. Representatives of two different families of transcription factors (TFs), TaDREB5 and TaNFYC-A7, were found to be linked to yield-under-drought using polymorphic Amplifluor-like SNP marker assays. qRT-PCR revealed differing patterns of expression of these genes in the leaves of plants subjected to the above treatments. Under drought, TaDREB5 was significantly up-regulated in leaves of all high-yielding varieties tested and down-regulated in all low-yielding varieties, and the level of expression was independent of treatment type. In contrast, TaNFYC-A7 expression levels showed different responses in the high- and low-yield groups of wheat varieties. TaNFYC-A7 expression under dehydration (treatments 2 and 3) was higher than under drought (treatment 1) in all high-yielding varieties tested, while in all low-yielding varieties the opposite pattern was observed: the expression levels of this gene under drought were higher than under dehydration. Rapid dehydration of detached leaves and intact wheat plants grown in hydroponics produced similar changes in gene expression. ABA treatment of whole plants caused rapid stomatal closure and a rise in the transcript level of both genes during the first 30 min, which decreased 6 h after treatment. At this time-point, expression of TaNFYC-A7 was again significantly up-regulated compared to untreated controls, while TaDREB5 returned to its initial level of expression. These findings reveal significant differences in the transcriptional regulation of two drought-responsive and ABA-dependent TFs under slowly developing drought and rapid dehydration of wheat plants. The results obtained suggest that correlation between grain yield in dry conditions and TaNFYC-A7 expression levels in the examined wheat varieties is dependent on the length of drought development and/or strength of drought; while in the case of TaDREB5, no such dependence is observed.

The general transcription repressor, TaDr1 gene, was identified during screening of a wheat SNP database using the Amplifluor-like SNP marker KATU-W62. Together with two genes described earlier, TaDr1A and TaDr1B, they represent a set of three homeologous genes in the wheat genome. Under drought, the total expression profiles of all three genes varied between different bread wheat cultivars. Plants of four high-yielding cultivars exposed to drought showed a 2.0–2.4-fold increase in TaDr1 expression compared to controls. Less strong, but significant 1.3–1.8-fold up-regulation of the TaDr1 transcript levels was observed in four low-yielding cultivars. TaVrn1 and TaFT1, which controls the transition to flowering, revealed similar profiles of expression as TaDr1. Expression levels of all three genes were in good correlation with grain yields of evaluated cultivars growing in the field under water-limited conditions. The results could indicate the involvement of all three genes in the same regulatory pathway, where the general transcription repressor TaDr1 may control expression of TaVrn1 and TaFT1 and, consequently, flowering time. The strength of these genes expression can lead to phenological changes that affect plant productivity and hence explain differences in the adaptation of the examined wheat cultivars to the dry environment of Northern and Central Kazakhstan. The Amplifluor-like SNP marker KATU-W62 used in this work can be applied to the identification of wheat cultivars differing in alleles at the TaDr1 locus and in screening hybrids.

One of the most important areas of development of the agro-industrial complex at the present stage is obtaining high and sustainable grain yields. Spring triticale plays a significant role in solving this problem, as one of the most productive grain crops. In this case, adjusting the seeding rate is an affordable and effective method for successfully managing the crop's productivity. The purpose of the study is to substantiate the optimal sowing dates and seeding rates of spring triticale in the zone of ordinary chernozems of Northern Kazakhstan, providing a maximum yield of grain products. The innovation of this article is that it presents data on the study of sowing dates and seeding rates of nontraditional spring triticale culture of two varieties -Dauren and Rossika in the conditions of the North Kazakhstan region. The results of the average yield of spring triticale varieties depending on the sowing period, seeding rates, and meteorological indicators of the growing season of 2019-2021 were provided. It was concluded that the most optimal sowing period is the end of the second ten daysthe third ten days of May, and the optimal seeding rate is in the range of 4.0-5.0 million germinable seeds per hectare.