Analysis of mRNAs from ripening wheat seeds: the effect of high temperature

High temperatures during grain filling are considered one of the factors that can modify dough properties and quality in wheat. In this study we analysed four Italian wheat cultivars grown under different temperature conditions to study the influence of high temperature on storage-protein-gene expression. Plants were grown both in the field and in growth cabinets, and were subjected to different thermal regimes. PolyA+ mRNAs were extracted from control and stressed plants at different stages of kernel development. Northern blot hybridisations were performed using probes for storage and heat shock proteins to monitor the expression of the relative genes under different temperature conditions. Northern analyses, performed using storage protein probes, indicated that temperature variation does not influence the synthesis of any of the storage protein mRNAs. On the contrary, the hybridisation signals obtained using heat shock probes were more intense in the stressed samples, indicating that the expression of heat shock genes is modulated by the temperature variation.