Biochemical analysis of trehalose and its metabolizing enzymes in wheat under abiotic stress conditions

In this study, three wheat cultivars (Triticum aestivum L.) Tosun, Bolal (stress tolerant) and Çakmak (stress sensitive) were analysed for the presence of trehalose. Using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis, trehalose was unambiguously identified in extracts from seeds and seedlings of different wheat cultivars. The trehalose amount was quantified by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) connected with refractive index detector. Effects of drought and salt stress on trehalose contents of wheat cultivars were studied at seedling level and trehalose analysis was achieved both on shoot and root tissues. It was found that trehalose had accumulated under salt and drought stress conditions in all wheat cultivars. Furthermore, trehalose metabolizing enzymes; trehalose-6-phosphate synthase (TPS) and trehalase enzyme activities were measured in roots and shoots of wheat cultivars under control, salt and drought stress conditions. TPS activity sharply increased under stress conditions and the activity of TPS in roots under drought stress condition was the highest and reached to three to four times of its activity under control condition. The increase in the activity of TPS showed parallelism with trehalose accumulation under stress condition. Trehalase activity in Bolal cultivar decreased under both salt and drought stress conditions, however there was no significant change in trehalase activity of Çakmak variety. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report on trehalose metabolizing enzymes under stress conditions.