Transcriptomic and Metabolomic Analyses Reveal the Response to Short-Term Drought Stress in Bread Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.)

Drought stress, a major abiotic stress, significantly affects wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) production globally. To identify genes and metabolic pathways crucial for responding to short-term drought stress, we conducted transcriptomic and metabolomic analyses of winter wheat cultivar Jimai 418 at four developmental stages: jointing (GS31), booting (GS45), anthesis (GS65), and 8 days after anthesis (DAA8). Transcriptomic analysis identified 14,232 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) under drought stress compared to the control. Specifically, 1387, 4573, 7380, and 892 DEGs were identified at the four developmental stages, respectively. Enriched pathways associated with these DEGs included plant hormone signal transduction, mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling, galactose metabolism, and starch and sucrose metabolism. Totals of 222, 633, 358, and 38 differentially accumulated metabolites (DAMs) were identified at the four stages, respectively. Correlation analysis of both datasets revealed DEGs and DAMs associated with plant hormone signal transduction, arginine and proline metabolism, ABC transporters, and amino acid biosynthesis. These findings offer significant insights into Jimai 418’s molecular response to short-term drought stress. The identified DEGs, DAMs, and enriched pathways contribute to our understanding of wheat drought tolerance. This research will facilitate further investigations into drought tolerance mechanisms and guide the breeding of wheat varieties with enhanced drought resistance.