Patterns of Abiotic Stress–Induced Homoeologous Gene Silencing in Hexaploid Wheat

Genes duplicated following polyploidization (termed homoeologues) are not always equally expressed. Although homoeologous silencing is an established phenomenon among polyploid species, to date, only limited evidence has been gathered which associates a phenotype with the absence of an individual homoeologous transcript. Here, we show that salinity stress can induce homoeologous silencing in hexaploid wheat and that selective expression can also occur in a tissue not directly exposed to the stress. Some of the instances of salinity stress‐induced homoeologous silencing were dependent on the severity of the stress. The responses were conserved across three diverse cultivars. It is likely that this type of response contributes significantly to the overall level of salinity resistance shown by polyploid wheat.