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Heat stress poses a serious threat to global crop production. In efforts that aim to mitigate the adverse effects of heat stress on crops, a variety of genetic tools are being used to develop plants with improved thermotolerance. The characterization of important regulators of heat stress tolerance provides essential information for this aim. In this study, we examine the wheat (Triticum aestivum) NAC transcription factor gene TaNAC2L. High temperature induced TaNAC2L expression in wheat and overexpression of TaNAC2L in Arabidopsis thaliana enhanced acquired heat tolerance without causing obvious alterations in phenotype compared with wild type under normal conditions. TaNAC2L overexpression also activated the expression of heat-related genes in the transgenic Arabidopsis plants, suggesting that TaNAC2L may improve heat tolerance by regulating the expression of stress-responsive genes. Notably, TaNAC2L is also regulated at the post-translational level and might be degraded via a proteasome-mediated pathway. Thus, this wheat transcription factor may have potential uses in enhancing thermotolerance in crops.

Heterosis is associated with differential gene expression between hybrids and their parental lines, and the genes involved in cell proliferation played important roles. AtARF2 is a general cell proliferation repressor in Arabidopsis. In our previous study, two homologues (ZmARF10 and ZmARF25) of AtARF2 were identified in maize, but their relationship with heterosis was not elucidated. Here, the expression patterns of ZmARF10 and ZmARF25 in seedling leaves of maize hybrids and their parental lines were analyzed. The results of qRT-PCR exhibited that ZmARF25 was down-regulated in leaf basal region of hybrids. Moreover, overexpression of ZmARF25 led to reduced organ size in Arabidopsis, which was mainly due to the decrease in cell number, not cell size. In addition, the cell proliferation related genes AtANT, AtGIF1 and AtGRF5 were down-regulated in 35S::ZmARF25 transgenic lines. Collectively, we proposed that the down-regulation of ZmARF25 in maize hybrid may accelerate cell proliferation and promote leaf development, which, in turn, contributes to the observed leaf size heterosis in maize.

In spite of commercial use of heterosis in agriculture, the molecular basis of heterosis is poorly understood. It was observed that maize hybrid Zong3/87-1 exhibited an earlier onset or heterosis in radicle emergence. To get insights into the underlying mechanism of heterosis in radicle emergence, differential proteomic analysis between hybrid and its parental lines was performed. In total, the number of differentially expressed protein spots between hybrid and its parental lines in dry and 24 h imbibed seed embryos were 134 and 191, respectively, among which 47.01% (63/134) and 34.55% (66/191) protein spots displayed nonadditively expressed pattern. Remarkably, 54.55% of nonadditively accumulated proteins in 24 h imbibed seed embryos displayed above or equal to the level of the higher parent patterns. Moreover, 155 differentially expressed protein spots were identified, which were grouped into eight functional classes, including transcription & translation, energy & metabolism, signal transduction, disease & defense, storage protein, transposable element, cell growth & division and unclassified proteins. In addition, one of the upregulated proteins in F1 hybrids was ZmACT2, a homolog of Arabidopsis thaliana ACT7 (AtACT7). Expressing ZmACT2 driven by the AtACT7 promoter partially complemented the low germination phenotype in the Atact7 mutant. These results indicated that hybridization between two parental lines can cause changes in the expression of a variety of proteins, and it is concluded that the altered pattern of gene expression at translational level in the hybrid may be responsible for the observed heterosis.

Common wheat is a hexaploid species with most of the genes present as triplicate homoeologs. Expression divergences of homoeologs are frequently observed in wheat as well as in other polyploid plants. However, little is known about functional variances among homologous genes arising from polyploidy. Expansins play diverse roles in plant developmental processes related to the action of cell wall loosening. Expression of the three TaEXPA1 homoeologs varied dynamically at different stages and organs, and epigenetic modifications contribute to the expression divergence of three TaEXPA1 homoeologs during wheat development. Nevertheless, their functions remain to be clarified. We found that over expression of TaEXPA1-A, -B and -D produced similar morphological changes in transgenic Arabidopsis plants, including increased germination and growth rate during seedling and adult stages, indicating that the proteins encoded by these three wheat TaEXPA1 homoeologs have similar (or conserved) functions in Arabidopsis. Collectively, our present study provided an example of a set of homoeologous genes expression divergence in different developmental stages and organs in hexaploid wheat but functional retention in transgenic Arabidopsis plants.