Diurnal Changes of Metabolites in Water-Stressed and Non-Stressed Wheat Leaves.

The goal of this study was to elucidate diurnal metabolic expression in wheat leaves following post-anthessis water stress. Wheat variety 'SS8641' grown in controlled environment and water stress was employed at grain filling stage (anthesis) to one group of wheat plants while another group remained well-watered. The leaf samples were harvested twice (12 midnight and 12 noon) over a 24-hour period from both group of plants at 18 days post-anthesis. Metabolic profiling using LC-HRMS revealed total 723 peaks, in which 394 metabolites were known whereas 248 peaks acquired possible chemical formulas and 146 were unknown. Diurnal comparison of the metabolite data achieved from the analogous analysis suggests relatively limited changes in their expression levels. However, some metabolites like tryptophan, proline, pipcolate, linamarin, phenylalanine, tyrosine etc. were differentially expressed in water-stressed leaves than non-stressed leaves.