BRI1 EMS SUPPRESSOR1 genes regulate abiotic stress and anther development in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.)

Dezhou Wang; Jinghong Zuo; Shan Liu; Weiwei Wang; Qing Lu; Xiaocong Hao; Zhaofeng Fang; Ting Liang; Yue Sun; Chunman Guo; Changping Zhao; Yimiao Tang

doi:10.3389/fpls.2023.1219856

BRI1 EMS SUPPRESSOR1 genes regulate abiotic stress and anther development in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.)

Front Plant Sci. 2023 Aug 9:14:1219856. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2023.1219856. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Dezhou Wang^{1

2}, Jinghong Zuo^{1

2}, Shan Liu^{1

2}, Weiwei Wang^{1

2}, Qing Lu³, Xiaocong Hao^{1

2}, Zhaofeng Fang^{1

2}, Ting Liang³, Yue Sun³, Chunman Guo^{1

2}, Changping Zhao^{1

2}, Yimiao Tang^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Hybrid Wheat, Beijing Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences, Beijing, China.
² The Municipal Key Laboratory of the Molecular Genetics of Hybrid Wheat, Hubei Collaborative Innovation Center for Grain Industry, Beijing, China.
³ Agriculture College, Yangtze University, Jingzhou, China.

Abstract

BRI1 EMS SUPPRESSOR1 (BES1) family members are crucial downstream regulators that positively mediate brassinosteroid signaling, playing vital roles in the regulation of plant stress responses and anther development in Arabidopsis. Importantly, the expression profiles of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) BES1 genes have not been analyzed comprehensively and systematically in response to abiotic stress or during anther development. In this study, we identified 23 BES1-like genes in common wheat, which were unevenly distributed on 17 out of 21 wheat chromosomes. Phylogenetic analysis clustered the BES1 genes into four major clades; moreover, TaBES1-3A2, TaBES1-3B2 and TaBES1-3D2 belonged to the same clade as Arabidopsis BES1/BZR1 HOMOLOG3 (BEH3) and BEH4, which participate in anther development. The expression levels of 23 wheat BES1 genes were assessed using real-time quantitative PCR under various abiotic stress conditions (drought, salt, heat, and cold), and we found that most TaBES1-like genes were downregulated under abiotic stress, particularly during drought stress. We therefore used drought-tolerant and drought-sensitive wheat cultivars to explore TaBES1 expression patterns under drought stress. TaBES1-3B2 and TaBES1-3D2 expression was high in drought-tolerant cultivars but substantially repressed in drought-sensitive cultivars, while TaBES1-6D presented an opposite pattern. Among genes preferentially expressed in anthers, TaBES1-3B2 and TaBES1-3D2 expression was substantially downregulated in thermosensitive genic male-sterile wheat lines compared to common wheat cultivar under sterile conditions, while we detected no obvious differences under fertile conditions. This result suggests that TaBES1-3B2 and TaBES1-3D2 might not only play roles in regulating drought tolerance, but also participate in low temperature-induced male sterility.

Keywords: BRI1 EMS SUPPRESSOR (BES1); abiotic stresses; anther development; expression pattern; thermosensitive genic male sterile.

Grants and funding

This research was supported by Collaborative Innovation Center of Genomics Breeding of BAAFS (KJCX201907-2), Foundation for Youths of BAAFS (QNJJ202316), and Beijing Natural Science Foundation Project (6222011).