Transcriptomic responses of wheat anthers to drought stress and antitranspirants

Transcriptomic responses were investigated in wheat anthers taken from polytunnel-grown plants: droughted plants sprayed with antitranspirants, droughted unsprayed plants and well-watered plants. Film (Vapor Gard - VG) and metabolic (S)-Abscisic Acid (ABA) antitranspirants were sprayed at the flag leaf stage (GS39) and tillers were collected around GS41 and stored in water (well-watered plants) or 5% PEG-400 solution (droughted unsprayed and antitranspirant treated plants) for between 1-9 days to allow anther staging and collection. Anthers were collected at the early meiosis stage (leptotene-zygotene), which was confirmed using acetocarmine staining of another anther in the same floret. Approximately 50 anthers were collected for each sample, originating from multiple tillers. Three biological replicates were obtained for each treatment and preserved in RNAlater and stored at -80C until RNA extraction.