The Role of Transcription Factors in Wheat Under Different Abiotic Stresses - Abiotic Stress: Plant Responses and Applications in Agriculture - page 378

indicated that certain stress-induced TF genes play significant roles in wheat stress tolerance.
These studies enhance our understanding of the mechanisms of responses and tolerance to
abiotic stress in wheat. Also, it provides us a collection of suitable candidate genes for over-
or under-expression studies in transgenic wheat aiming to achieve increased abiotic stress
tolerance.
In the future, a systems biology approach using reverse genetics, functional genomics and
proteomics, as well as metabonomics during various developmental stages and stress condi‐
tions will provide us with critical information to elucidate the function of the different stress-
responsive TFs and their relationship in transcriptional control in wheat.
In the years ahead, the verification of abiotic stress tolerance and agronomic traits of transgenic
wheat utilizing stress-responsive TF genes should be evaluated under harsh field conditions
over several years. It can be expected that with increases in climatic variations, more robust
cultivars that withstand a wide variety of stresses will be superior over those that are high
yielding under optimal conditions. To this end, it will be necessary to clarify the differential
function of the individual stress-responsive TF genes from different families of TFs for the
control of abiotic stress tolerance and other biological processes including biotic stress
tolerance, growth regulation, senescence and yield in order to fully utilize the potential of
transcription factors.
Author details
Mahdi Rahaie 1 , Gang-Ping Xue 2 and Peer M. Schenk 3*
1 Department of Life Science Engineering, Faculty of New Science and Technology, Univer‐
sity of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
2 Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization Plant Industry, Queens‐
land Bioscience Precinct, St. Lucia, Queensland, Australia
3 School of Agriculture and Food Sciences, The University of Queensland, St. Lucia, Queens‐
land, Australia
References
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