Comparative transcriptome analysis of wheat embryo and endosperm response to ABA and H2O2 stresses during seed germination

Wheat seed germination directly affects wheat yield and quality. The wheat grains mainly include embryo and endosperm, and both play important roles in seed germination, seedling survival and subsequent vegetative growth. ABA can positively regulate dormancy induction and then negatively regulates seed germination at low concentrations. H2O2 treatment with low concentration can promote seed germination of cereal plants. Although various transcriptomics and proteomics approaches have been used to investigate the seed germination mechanisms and response to various abiotic stresses in different plant species, an integrative transcriptome analysis of wheat embryo and endosperm response to ABA and H2O2 stresses has not reported so far. We used the elite Chinese bread wheat cultivar Zhenmai 9023 as material and performed the first comparative transcriptome microarray analysis between embryo and endosperm response to ABA and H2O2 treatments during seed germination using the GeneChip® Wheat Genome Array Wheat seed germination includes a great amount of regulated genes which belong to many functional groups. ABA/H2O2 can repress/promote seed germination through coordinated regulating related genes expression. Our results provide new insights into the transcriptional regulation mechanisms of embryo and endosperm response to ABA and H2O2 treatments during seed germination The six groups including embryo and endosperm response to pure water (CK), ABA and H2O2 were havested respectively, which were CK_embryo (CKem), CK_endosperm (CKe), ABA_embryo (ABAem), ABA_endosperm (ABAe), H2O2_embryo (H2O2em), H2O2_endosperm (H2O2e). Three independent experiments were performed for each group.