Genetic Transformation of Triticum dicoccum and Triticum aestivum with Genes of Jasmonate Biosynthesis Pathway Affects Growth and Productivity Characteristics

The transformation protocol based on the dual selection approach (fluorescent protein and herbicide resistance) has been applied here to produce transgenic plants of two cereal species, emmer wheat and bread wheat, with the goal of activating the synthesis of the stress hormone jasmonates by overexpressing <i>ALLENE OXIDE SYNTHASE</i> from <i>Arabidopsis thaliana</i> (<i>AtAOS</i>) and bread wheat (<i>TaAOS</i>) and <i>OXOPHYTODIENOATE REDUCTASE 3</i> from <i>A. thaliana</i> (<i>AtOPR3</i>) under the strong constitutive promoter (<i>ZmUbi1</i>), either individually or both genes simultaneously. The delivery of the expression cassette encoding AOS was found to affect morphogenesis in both wheat species negatively. The effect of transgene expression on the accumulation of individual jasmonates in hexaploid and tetraploid wheat was observed. Among the introduced genes, overexpression of <i>TaAOS</i> was the most successful in increasing stress-inducible phytohormone levels in transgenic plants, resulting in higher accumulations of JA and JA-Ile in emmer wheat and 12-OPDA in bread wheat. In general, overexpression of <i>AOS</i>, alone or together with <i>AtOPR3</i>, negatively affected leaf lamina length and grain numbers per spike in both wheat species. Double (<i>AtAOS</i> + <i>AtOPR3</i>) transgenic wheat plants were characterized by significantly reduced plant height and seed numbers, especially in emmer wheat, where several primary plants failed to produce seeds.