Expression changes in theTaNAC2andTaNAC69-1transcription factors in drought stress tolerant and susceptible accessions ofTriticum boeoticum

Triticum boeoticumis a valuable gene source for tolerance to drought stress. In order to study the effect of drought stress on this plant, and to understand its adaptive mechanisms at the molecular level, 10 accessions ofT. boeoticumwere evaluated under non- and drought stress conditions. Evaluation of 31 different phenological, morpho-physiological and root-related traits showed that there were significant differences between accessions. Using the bi-plot resulting from the PCA, the studied traits and accessions were separated in different groups. The most tolerant (B5) and susceptible (B6) accessions to drought stress were identified, so these accessions were used for assessment of changes in theTaNAC2andTaNAC69-1transcription factors (TFs) expression. The results showed that in the most tolerant and susceptible accessions,TaNAC2andTaNAC69-1expression levels increased between non-stress and stress conditions significantly, but the increased level of these two genes expression in the most tolerant accession was much higher than the most susceptible accession. According to the obtained results,T. boeoticumcan be a suitable and promising gene source for improving modern wheat. In addition, the results of TFs expression could improve our understanding about the complex mechanisms associated with drought tolerance in wheat, especially wild wheat.