Low temperature-induced necrosis shows phenotypic plasticity in wheat triploid hybrids

Hybrid necrosis sometimes appears in triploid hybrids between tetraploid wheat and Aegilops tauschii Coss. Two types of hybrid necrosis (type II and type III) were observed when cultivar Langdon was used as female parent for hybrid production. Type II necrosis symptoms occurred only under low temperature conditions, whereas bushy and dwarf phenotypes were observed under normal temperature conditions. The developmental plasticity might be related to a temperature-responsive alteration of meristematic activity at the crown tissue of triploid hybrids. Epistatic interaction between the AB and D genomes induced not only upregulation of a number of defense-related genes, but also extensive changes in plant architecture in the type II necrosis hybrids. Such phenotypic plasticity was also observed in other cross combinations between cultivated tetraploid wheat and type II necrosis-induced Ae. tauschii accessions. Wild tetraploid wheat, Triticum turgidum subspecies dicoccoides, did not induce type II necrosis in the triploid hybrids, indicating the possibility of identifying the chromosomal location of a causal gene for type II necrosis in the AB genome.