Rising temperatures and heat waves pose a substantial threat to crop productivity by disrupting essential physiological and reproductive processes. While plants have a genetically inherited capacity to acclimate to high temperatures, the thermotolerance capacity of many crops remains limited. This limitation leads to yield losses, which are further intensified by the increasing intensity of climate change. In this review, we explore how thermopriming enhances plant resilience by preparing plants for future heat stress (HS) events and summarize the mechanisms underlying the memory of HS (thermomemory) in different plant tissues and organs. We also discuss recent advances in priming agents, including chemical, microbial and physiological interventions, and their application strategies to extend thermotolerance beyond inherent genetic capacity. Additionally, this review examines how integrating priming strategies with genetic improvements, such as breeding and genome editing for thermotolerance traits, provides a holistic solution to mitigate the impact of climate change on agriculture. By combining these approaches, we propose a framework for developing climate-resilient crops and ensuring global food security in the face of escalating environmental challenges.This article is part of the theme issue 'Crops under stress: can we mitigate the impacts of climate change on agriculture and launch the 'Resilience Revolution'?'.

• Klíčová slova
• crop resilience, global warming, heat stress, priming, thermomemory, thermotolerance,
• MeSH
• klimatické změny * MeSH
• reakce na tepelný šok MeSH
• termotolerance * MeSH
• vysoká teplota MeSH
• zemědělské plodiny * fyziologie   genetika   MeSH
• Publikační typ
• časopisecké články MeSH
• přehledy MeSH

• MeSH
• rozmnožování MeSH
• zajištění potravin * MeSH
• zemědělské plodiny * růst a vývoj   MeSH
• Publikační typ
• dopisy MeSH
• práce podpořená grantem MeSH
• úvodníky MeSH

Heat stress is a major threat to global crop production, and understanding its impact on plant fertility is crucial for developing climate-resilient crops. Despite the known negative effects of heat stress on plant reproduction, the underlying molecular mechanisms remain poorly understood. Here, we investigated the impact of elevated temperature on centromere structure and chromosome segregation during meiosis in Arabidopsis thaliana. Consistent with previous studies, heat stress leads to a decline in fertility and micronuclei formation in pollen mother cells. Our results reveal that elevated temperature causes a decrease in the amount of centromeric histone and the kinetochore protein BMF1 at meiotic centromeres with increasing temperature. Furthermore, we show that heat stress increases the duration of meiotic divisions and prolongs the activity of the spindle assembly checkpoint during meiosis I, indicating an impaired efficiency of the kinetochore attachments to spindle microtubules. Our analysis of mutants with reduced levels of centromeric histone suggests that weakened centromeres sensitize plants to elevated temperature, resulting in meiotic defects and reduced fertility even at moderate temperatures. These results indicate that the structure and functionality of meiotic centromeres in Arabidopsis are highly sensitive to heat stress, and suggest that centromeres and kinetochores may represent a critical bottleneck in plant adaptation to increasing temperatures.

• Klíčová slova
• A. thaliana, cell biology, centremeres, centromeric histone, chromosomes, gene expression, meiosis, micronuclei, spindle assembly checkpoint,
• MeSH
• Arabidopsis * genetika   metabolismus   MeSH
• centromera metabolismus   MeSH
• histony metabolismus   MeSH
• kinetochory metabolismus   MeSH
• meióza MeSH
• reakce na tepelný šok MeSH
• rostliny genetika   MeSH
• segregace chromozomů MeSH
• Publikační typ
• časopisecké články MeSH
• Názvy látek
• histony MeSH

BACKGROUND: Plant sexual reproduction is highly sensitive to elevated ambient temperatures, impacting seed development and production. We previously phenotyped this effect on three rapeseed cultivars (DH12075, Topas DH4079, and Westar). This work describes the transcriptional response associated with the phenotypic changes induced by heat stress during early seed development in Brassica napus. RESULTS: We compared the differential transcriptional response in unfertilized ovules and seeds bearing embryos at 8-cell and globular developmental stages of the three cultivars exposed to high temperatures. We identified that all tissues and cultivars shared a common transcriptional response with the upregulation of genes linked to heat stress, protein folding and binding to heat shock proteins, and the downregulation of cell metabolism. The comparative analysis identified an enrichment for a response to reactive oxygen species (ROS) in the heat-tolerant cultivar Topas, correlating with the phenotypic changes. The highest heat-induced transcriptional response in Topas seeds was detected for genes encoding various peroxidases, temperature-induced lipocalin (TIL1), or protein SAG21/LEA5. On the contrary, the transcriptional response in the two heat-sensitive cultivars, DH12075 and Westar, was characterized by heat-induced cellular damages with the upregulation of genes involved in the photosynthesis and plant hormone signaling pathways. Particularly, the TIFY/JAZ genes involved in jasmonate signaling were induced by stress, specifically in ovules of heat-sensitive cultivars. Using a weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA), we identified key modules and hub genes involved in the heat stress response in studied tissues of either heat-tolerant or sensitive cultivars. CONCLUSIONS: Our transcriptional analysis complements a previous phenotyping analysis by characterizing the growth response to elevated temperatures during early seed development and reveals the molecular mechanisms underlying the phenotypic response. The results demonstrated that response to ROS, seed photosynthesis, and hormonal regulation might be the critical factors for stress tolerance in oilseed rape.

• Klíčová slova
• Brassica napus, Embryo, Ovule, Seed, Thermomorphogenesis, Transcriptomics,
• MeSH
• Brassica napus * metabolismus   MeSH
• reaktivní formy kyslíku metabolismus   MeSH
• regulace genové exprese u rostlin MeSH
• semena rostlinná metabolismus   MeSH
• stanovení celkové genové exprese MeSH
• transkriptom MeSH
• vajíčko rostlin MeSH
• Publikační typ
• časopisecké články MeSH
• Názvy látek
• reaktivní formy kyslíku MeSH

Alongside the use of fertilizer and chemical control of weeds, pests, and diseases modern breeding has been very successful in generating cultivars that have increased agricultural production several fold in favorable environments. These typically homogeneous cultivars (either homozygous inbreds or hybrids derived from inbred parents) are bred under optimal field conditions and perform well when there is sufficient water and nutrients. However, such optimal conditions are rare globally; indeed, a large proportion of arable land could be considered marginal for agricultural production. Marginal agricultural land typically has poor fertility and/or shallow soil depth, is subject to soil erosion, and often occurs in semi-arid or saline environments. Moreover, these marginal environments are expected to expand with ongoing climate change and progressive degradation of soil and water resources globally. Crop wild relatives (CWRs), most often used in breeding as sources of biotic resistance, often also possess traits adapting them to marginal environments. Wild progenitors have been selected over the course of their evolutionary history to maintain their fitness under a diverse range of stresses. Conversely, modern breeding for broad adaptation has reduced genetic diversity and increased genetic vulnerability to biotic and abiotic challenges. There is potential to exploit genetic heterogeneity, as opposed to genetic uniformity, in breeding for the utilization of marginal lands. This review discusses the adaptive traits that could improve the performance of cultivars in marginal environments and breeding strategies to deploy them.

• Klíčová slova
• abiotic stress, adaptation, breeding, crop wild relatives, legumes, marginal environment,
• Publikační typ
• časopisecké články MeSH
• přehledy MeSH

• Klíčová slova
• anther, biotechnology, breeding, crops, pollen,
• Publikační typ
• úvodníky MeSH