RNA-Seq Transcriptome Profiling of Immature Grain Wheat: A Comparative Modeling of Baking Quality

Abstract Improving the baking quality is a primary challenge in the wheat flour production value chain, as baking quality represents a crucial factor in determining its overall value. In the present study, we conducted a comparative RNA-Seq analysis on the high baking quality mutant “O-64.1.10” genotype and its low baking quality wild type "Omid" cultivar to recognize potential genes associated with bread quality. The cDNA libraries were constructed from immature grains that were 15 days post-anthesis (DPA), with an average of 16.24 and 18.97 million PE short-read sequences in the mutant and wild-type, respectively. A total number of 733 transcripts with differential expression were identified, 584 and 189 of which were obtained with significantly differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in the mutant and the wild-type, respectively. In addition, the families of HSF, bZIP, C2C2-Dof, B3-ARF, BES1, C3H, GRF, HB-HD-ZIP, PLATZ, MADS-MIKC, GARP-G2-like, NAC, OFP and TUB were appeared as the key transcription factors with specific expression in the “O-64.1.10” genotype. At the same time, pathways related to baking quality were identified through Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG). Collectively, we found that the endoplasmic network, metabolic pathways, secondary metabolite biosynthesis, hormone signaling pathway, B group vitamins, protein pathways, pathways associated with carbohydrate and fat metabolism, as well as the biosynthesis and metabolism of various amino acids, have a great deal of potential to play a significant role in the baking quality. Ultimately, the RNA-seq results were confirmed using qRT-PCR for some hub genes such as alpha-gliadin, Low molecular weight glutenin subunit (LMW-GS) and terpene synthase (gibberellin) and as a resource for future study, 127 EST-SSR primers were generated using RNA-seq data.