AUTHOR=Tomás Diana , Coelho Luís Pinto , Rodrigues José Carlos , Viegas Wanda , Silva Manuela 

TITLE=Assessment of Four Portuguese Wheat Landrace Diversity to Cope With Global Warming

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Plant Science

VOLUME=Volume 11 - 2020

YEAR=2020

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/plant-science/articles/10.3389/fpls.2020.594977

DOI=10.3389/fpls.2020.594977

ISSN=1664-462X

ABSTRACT=Wheat is a dietary staple consumed worldwide strongly responsible for proteins and carbohydrates population intake. However, wheat production and quality will scarcely fulfill forward demands which are compounded by high temperatures events as heatwaves, increasingly common in Portugal. Thus, landraces assume crucial importance as potential reservoirs of useful traits for wheat breeding and may be pre-adapted to extreme environmental conditions. This work evaluates four Portuguese landraces yield and grain composition through ATR-FTIR spectroscopy, particularly protein content, and their responses to high temperature treatment mimicking a heatwave. 
Landraces showed distinct yield traits, specially plant height and 1st spike grain number, and similar pattern in FTIR spectra, although revealing differences in grain components’ proportions. Comparison between spectra bands intensity indicates that Ardito has the highest protein related peaks, contrarily to Magueija, that appears to be the landrace with higher lipids content. In plants submitted to one week high temperature treatment 10 days after anthesis, 1st spike grain size and weight were markedly reduced in all landraces. Additionally, it was observed a general increase in grain protein content in the four landraces, being the increment observed in Ardito and Grécia statistically significant. The comparative assessment of control and HT average FTIR spectra denoted also the occurrence of alterations in grain polysaccharides composition. 
An integrated assessment of the evaluations performed reveal that Ardito and Magueija landraces presented diverse yield related characteristics and distinct responses to cope with high temperature. In fact, the former landrace revealed considerable grain yield diminution along with an increase in grain protein proportion after HT, while the latter shown a significant increase in spikes and grains number, with grain quality detriment. These results reinforce the relevance of scrutinize old genotypes diversity seeking for useful characteristics, particularly considering high temperature impact on grain production and quality.