Drought priming induces thermo-tolerance to post-anthesis high-temperature in offspring of winter wheat

• Drought priming on wheat parents induced thermo-tolerance in their offspring.
• Up-regulated anti-oxidation and Pn contributed to the thermo-tolerance acquaintance.
• Modified protein expressions caused less Pn reduction of primed offspring plants.
• Robust signaling and HSPs played vital roles in the drought-to-heat tolerance.

High temperature stress is a worldwide environmental constraint on crop production. Exposure of plants to a stress event could induce tolerance in them and even in their offspring to subsequent stresses. This study was to test the hypothesis that drought priming of parent plants could trigger a cross tolerance to high-temperature stress in their offspring. Winter wheat plants were used and were firstly subjected to a drought stress during grain filling, and their offspring were exposed to a post-anthesis high-temperature stress. Grain yield, photosynthesis, anti-oxidation, and proteomic profile in wheat flag leaves of the offspring were determined. The results showed a less yield loss in the next generation of the wheat plants that had received drought priming, which could be ascribed to the improved photosynthesis because of the up-regulated expression of proteins involved in the light reaction and in the Calvin cycle, and to the enhanced anti-oxidation capacity as exemplified by the decreased contents of MDA and H2O2 because of the improved activities of SOD and POD. In addition, the proteomic analysis suggested that the enhanced thermo-tolerance could also be attributed to the more robust signal perception and transduction, better maintenance of protein structures, up-regulation of sucrose synthesis and accumulation of heat shock proteins.