Temporal profiling of floret developmental asynchrony for wheat-fertility studies

Abstract

Wheat grain number integrates fate of individual florets, strongly affected by environmental stress during sensitive stages like meiosis. Because development is asynchronous across tillers, spikelets, and florets, it is hard to distinguish stress tolerance from stress escape. Based on 2400 destructive measurements of spike and anther length together with non-destructive morphological measurements from 158 plants grown in four experiments in controlled-environment, we developed a framework to track individual floret developmental stages at plant level. We applied it in two case studies for connecting within-plant developmental asynchrony to reproductive success under favorable or heat conditions. All florets showed a common relative growth rate, producing additive delays across tillers (1-7 d), spikelets (1-5 d), and floret positions (1-6 d). This generated a developmental map for every floret based on external traits. Under control conditions, grain set probability at floret level combined both positional and developmental effects within a spike. Under heat stress, grain loss occurred only in florets at meiosis during the stress, allowing to quantify a true “stress response”, while later florets escaped damage. This framework allows understanding and predicting floret development and linking it to grain set, clearly distinguishing timing effects from positional influences and separating tolerance from stress escape.