The role of pollen starch accumulation in responses of wheat to water stress and film antitranspirant

Drought is one of the major abiotic factors, responsible for reduced wheat yields across the globe and is one of the main concerns for the world's food security. With the prediction of more extreme weather conditions in the future, a better understanding of how water stress affects the wheat crop is becoming more crucial. Studies indicated that drought stress is a significant cause of pollen sterility and affects pollen development which could ultimately result in lower crop yield (Dong et al. 2017). Some factors of pollen sterility have been described as reduced pollen starch accumulation, changes in hormone pathways and altered gene expression under water stress conditions (Yu et al., 2019). Research has revealed that pollen development can be improved if moisture stress can be decreased by reducing the transpiration rate from leaves. Earlier field experiments in HAU have shown that application of film antitranspirant on leaves at critical stage of wheat plants could improve pollen development by increased starch accumulation which results in improved grain number and crop yield (Weerasinghe et al., 2016).
The main aim of this study is to test the improvement of wheat yield and pollen starch accumulation responses under different water stress conditions including from film antitranspirant spray, along with studies at a molecular level e.g., transcriptomic responses, gene expression studies etc. to investigate this in more depth. Further hypotheses will be developed later after thorough review of literature. This research will be helpful in future studies for understanding the mechanism of drought tolerance not only at a physiological level but also at a molecular level, which would be useful in managing wheat crops better under water stress conditions and also in breeding varieties for drought tolerance.