A Wheat Mutant Presenting Delayed Germination Showed Positive Correlation Between Dormancy and Longevity

Pre-harvest sprouting (PHS) poses a significant climatic threat to wheat production, and enhancing seed dormancy has been regarded as an effective strategy to mitigate PHS. However, as a trait of considerable complexity, seed dormancy has posed numerous challenges in its genetic enhancement and manipulation. In this study, a wheat mutant named 1813WH was introduced from the PHS-sensitive cultivar 'Long 13-3778' through EMS treatment. This mutant exhibited significantly enhanced seed dormancy (with an average germination index of 0.85 compared to the wild type's 0.92), along with several agronomic changes, including increased plant height, decreased tillering, longer reproductive period, longer overall internode length and width, increased grain size and grain weight (P<0.05). Interestingly, a comprehensive analysis of the transcriptome and metabolomics of the seeds also revealed significant differences between 1813WH and the wild-type in pathways related to seed longevity. The glutathione (GSH) and galactose metabolism pathways showed significant enrichment, with the mutant's GSH content being 9.8 times and raffinose content being 3.5 times that of the wild-type. Corresponding genes also exhibited differential expression. This study provided evidence for the potential relationship between seed dormancy and longevity, which may have broader implications for the conservation and utilization of germplasm resources, as well as new materials for wheat breeding aimed at enhancing seed dormancy and longevity.