The role of pollen starch accumulation in responses of wheat to water stress and film antitranspirant

干旱是造成全球小麦减产的主要非生物因素之一，也是世界粮食安全的主要问题之一。随着对未来更极端天气条件的预测，更好地了解水资源压力如何影响小麦作物变得越来越重要。研究表明，干旱胁迫是花粉不育的重要原因，并影响花粉发育，最终导致作物减产（Dong et al. 2017）。花粉不育的一些因素被描述为水分胁迫条件下花粉淀粉积累减少、激素途径改变和基因表达改变（Yu et al., 2019）。研究表明，如果可以通过降低叶片的蒸腾速率来减少水分胁迫，就可以改善花粉的发育。早期HAU田间试验表明，在小麦植株的关键时期，在叶片上施用薄膜抗蒸发剂可以通过增加淀粉积累来改善花粉发育，从而提高粒数和作物产量（Weerasinghe et al., 2016）。本研究的主要目的是测试不同水分胁迫条件下，包括薄膜抗蒸煮剂喷雾对小麦产量和花粉淀粉积累的影响，并在分子水平上进行转录组反应、基因表达等研究，以更深入地研究这一点。在对文献进行全面的回顾之后，我们将提出进一步的假设。本研究将有助于从生理水平和分子水平进一步了解小麦的抗旱机理，为小麦在水分胁迫条件下更好地管理作物和选育抗旱品种提供理论依据。

Drought is one of the major abiotic factors, responsible for reduced wheat yields across the globe and is one of the main concerns for the world's food security. With the prediction of more extreme weather conditions in the future, a better understanding of how water stress affects the wheat crop is becoming more crucial. Studies indicated that drought stress is a significant cause of pollen sterility and affects pollen development which could ultimately result in lower crop yield (Dong et al. 2017). Some factors of pollen sterility have been described as reduced pollen starch accumulation, changes in hormone pathways and altered gene expression under water stress conditions (Yu et al., 2019). Research has revealed that pollen development can be improved if moisture stress can be decreased by reducing the transpiration rate from leaves. Earlier field experiments in HAU have shown that application of film antitranspirant on leaves at critical stage of wheat plants could improve pollen development by increased starch accumulation which results in improved grain number and crop yield (Weerasinghe et al., 2016).The main aim of this study is to test the improvement of wheat yield and pollen starch accumulation responses under different water stress conditions including from film antitranspirant spray, along with studies at a molecular level e.g., transcriptomic responses, gene expression studies etc. to investigate this in more depth. Further hypotheses will be developed later after thorough review of literature. This research will be helpful in future studies for understanding the mechanism of drought tolerance not only at a physiological level but also at a molecular level, which would be useful in managing wheat crops better under water stress conditions and also in breeding varieties for drought tolerance.