Na Wang;Jun Chen;Yuan Gao;Yongbin Zhou;Ming Chen;Zhao‐Shi Xu;Zhengwu Fang;You-Zhi M

Institute of Crop Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences/National Key Facility for Crop Gene Resources and Genetic Improvement, Key Laboratory of Biology and Genetic Improvement of Triticeae Crops, Ministry of Agriculture, Beijing 100081, China;Hubei Collaborative Innovation Center for Grain Industry/College of Agriculture, Yangtze University, Jingzhou 434000, Hubei, China;Institute of Crop Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences/National Key Facility for Crop Gene Resources and Genetic Improvement, Key Laboratory of Biology and Genetic Improvement of Triticeae Crops, Ministry of Agriculture, Beijing 100081, Chin

TaIPT;Phytohormone;Abiotic stress;Cytokinin biosynthesis;Whea

Cytokinins (CKs) function in plant development and during stress responses, but their role in drought tol-erance in wheat is unknown. In the present study, 24 isopentenyltransferase (IPT) genes, encoding rate-limiting enzymes in CK biosynthesis were identified in the wheat genome. The chromosomal locations and structures of the genes, protein properties, and phylogenetic relationships were characterized. ATP/ADP TaIPT genes showed tissue-specific expression. TaIPT2, TaIPT7, and TaIPT8 expression was rapidly induced by 0.5-1 h drought treatments, which decreased to low levels after 2 h drought treat-ment, as did most other TaIPT genes. TaIPT8-5a/5b/5d triple mutants showed decreased levels of tZ-type CK under normal and drought conditions and reduced drought tolerance, which, however, did not manifest as phenotype alterations. By contrast, transgenic wheat plants with drought-induced TaIPT8 showed increased drought tolerance. Our study provides a foundation for further investigation of TaIPT genes and novel insights into the role of CKs in the drought response of wheat.(c) 2022 Crop Science Society of China and Institute of Crop Science, CAAS. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of KeAi Communications Co., Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).