Exploring the Genotoxic Stress Response in Primed Orphan Legume Seeds Challenged with Heat Stress

Overview

Journal Genes (Basel)

Publisher MDPI

Date 2025 Feb 26

PMID 40004564

Authors

Andrea Pagano

Conrado Duenas Jr

Nicolo Bedotto

Amine Elleuch

Bassem Khemakhem

Hanen El Abed

Eleni Tani

Maria Goufa

Dimosthenis Chachalis

Alma Balestrazzi

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Background/objectives: The increased frequency of extreme weather events related to climate change, including the occurrence of extreme temperatures, severely affects crop yields, impairing global food security. Heat stress resulting from temperatures above 30 °C is associated with poor germination performance and stand establishment. The combination of climate-resilient crop genotypes and tailored seed priming treatments might represent a reliable strategy to overcome such drawbacks. This work explores the potential of hydropriming as a tool to mitigate the heat-stress-mediated impact on germination performance in orphan legumes.

Methods: For each tested species ( L., var. and L.), two accessions were investigated. Germination tests were performed at 25 °C, 30 °C, 35 °C and 40 °C to assess the heat stress tolerance threshold. Hydropriming was then applied and germination tests were performed at 40 °C to test the impact of the treatment on the seeds' ability to cope with heat stress. An alkaline comet assay and Quantitative Real Time-Polymerase Chain Reaction were performed on embryos excised from primed and control seeds.

Results: Phenotyping at the germination and seedling development stage highlighted the accession-specific beneficial impact of hydropriming under heat stress conditions. In seeds, the alkaline comet assay revealed the dynamics of heat stress-induced DNA damage accumulation, as well as the repair patterns promoted by hydropriming. The expression patterns of genes involved in DNA repair and antioxidant response were consistently responsive to the hydropriming and heat wave conditions in accessions.

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