PRJNA471244
Triticum aestivum Transcriptome or Gene expression
we report that self-propagated progeny cohorts of a synthetic allohexaploid wheat, which survived a strong heat- or salt-stress treatment, have, unexpectedly, manifested significantly increased euploidy frequencies than their siblings that did not undergo the stress. We document that this property is largely due to improved diploid-like meiotic chromosome behavior, including reduced incidents of univalent, early disjunction bivalents and lagging chromosomes. Moreover, we show that both phenotypes, stress-tolerance and enhanced meiosis stability, are transgenerationally heritable, but the latter being most likely a spandrel of the former. We also provide evidence indicating that moderate downregulation of either of two candidate meiosis genes, identified in comparative transcriptome analysis, in natural common wheat is sufficient to confer an unstable meiosis manifestation that phenocopies that of the newly synthesized hexaploid wheat.