Reprogramming of Seed Metabolism Facilitates Pre-harvest Sprouting Resistance of Wheat

Abstract

Pre-harvest sprouting (PHS) is a worldwide problem for wheat production and transgene antisense-thioredoxin-s (anti-trx-s) facilitates outstanding resistance. To understand the molecular details of PHS resistance, we analyzed the metabonomes of the transgenic and wild-type (control) wheat seeds at various stages using NMR and GC-FID/MS. 60 metabolites were dominant in these seeds including sugars, organic acids, amino acids, choline metabolites and fatty acids. At day-20 post-anthesis, only malate level in transgenic wheat differed significantly from that in controls whereas at day-30 post-anthesis, levels of amino acids and sucrose were significantly different between these two groups. For mature seeds, most metabolites in glycolysis, TCA cycle, choline metabolism, biosynthesis of proteins, nucleotides and fatty acids had significantly lower levels in transgenic seeds than in controls. After 30-days post-harvest ripening, most metabolites in transgenic seeds had higher levels than in controls including amino acids, sugars, organic acids, fatty acids, choline metabolites and NAD+. These indicated that anti-trx-s lowered overall metabolic activities of mature seeds eliminating pre-harvest sprouting potential. Post-harvest ripening reactivated the metabolic activities of transgenic seeds to restore their germination vigor. These findings provided essential molecular phenomic information for PHS resistance of anti-trx-s and a credible strategy for future developing PHS resistant crops.

Dynamic metabolic responses of brown planthoppers towards susceptible and resistant rice plants

“…Water peak was saturated with a continuous wave irradiation during the recycle delay (RD) of 2 s and mixing time (tm) of 80 ms. 64 transients were collected into 32 k data points with a spectral width of 20 ppm. A set of 2D NMR spectra including 1 H‐ 1 H TOCSY, 1 H‐ 1 H COSY, 1 H‐JRES, 1 H‐ 13 C HSQC and 1 H‐ 13 C HMBC spectra were acquired for selected samples to unambiguously assign resonances (Li et al ., ; Liu et al ., ).…”

“…In brief, 500 μL HPLC‐grade CH 3 OH was added to 20 mg of BPH residues from polar metabolite extraction. Methylation and GC‐MS detection were conducted as previously reported (Liu et al ., ). Fatty acid identification was achieved by comparing to a mixture of standard compounds and further confirmed by comparing their mass spectrometry data with databases.…”

“…BPH fatty acids were quantitatively measured using a previously reported method (Liu et al ., ) with some minor modifications. In brief, 500 μL HPLC‐grade CH 3 OH was added to 20 mg of BPH residues from polar metabolite extraction.…”

Learning To Breathe: Developmental Phase Transitions in Oxygen Status

“…2) [4]. In the seed, hydration [75] and local oxidation [76,77] extension, a feature that has been exploited in preventing precocious germination [78]. The rise in internal oxygen is augmented by the restriction of oxidative phosphorylation by partiallynitrite-dependent .…”

Redox Changes During the Cell Cycle in the Embryonic Root Meristem ofArabidopsis thaliana

“…Seed vigor ( 4 , 44 , 52 , 56 ) is important because the capacity for germination and seedling establishment have a profound impact on subsequent crop productivity and yield. Mature dry seeds are desiccation tolerant and the internal environment is essentially hypoxic ( 4 , 38 ). However, ROS generation and redox regulation of seed proteins are essential to the success of the germination process ( 2 , 5 , 22 , 23 ).…”