Author Identifier (ORCID)
James Broadbent’s ORCID record 
Sally Stockwell’s ORCID record
Abstract
Late maturity amylase (LMA) is a genetic defect in wheat causing premature accumulation of high-pI alpha-amylase isoforms in the aleurone during grain development, which reduces falling number, resulting in flour downgrading and price penalties. Yet, the aleurone layer proteome and metabolome remain poorly characterised across LMA-contrasting cultivars. We measured the proteome and central carbon metabolome of aleurone from three wheat cultivars differing in LMA-phenotype: Seri (susceptible), Kennedy (intermediate), and Hartog (resistant) – under abscisic acid (ABA), abscisic acid plus gibberellic acid (GA), or untreated conditions. Cultivar identity explained 65.7% of proteome variance, exceeding hormone treatment effects (13.1%), with no significant cultivar × treatment interaction. In Seri, increased numbers and abundance of alpha-amylase isoforms, glyoxylate cycle enzymes, arabinofuranosidase, malic acid, and sucrose indicate constitutive reserve mobilisation in the absence of hormone induction. The inhibitor-to-amylase ratio was higher in Hartog than Seri, suggesting LMA susceptibility reflects a broader imbalance between degradative enzymes and their regulators rather than elevated amylase production alone. The cultivar Hartog showed higher abundance of dehydrins, invertase/PME inhibitors, and sucrose-phosphate synthase, consistent with storage maintenance and cellular protection. Multi-omics integration and proteomics-phenotype integration independently converged on the same cultivar axis, with glyoxylate cycle enzymes and arabinofuranosidase consistently associated with Seri. These findings provide a molecular framework for dissecting mechanisms of LMA susceptibility and resistance.
Keywords
aleurone, central carbon metabolome, endosperm, late maturity amylase, LMA, proteome, wheat
Document Type
Journal Article
Date of Publication
10-1-2026
Article Number
111757
E-ISSN
18732690
ISSN
09819428
Volume
239
Publication Title
Plant Physiology and Biochemistry
Publisher
Elsevier
School
Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Innovations in Peptide and Protein Science / Centre for Crops and Horticulture Analytics for Nutrition and Climate Excellence
Funding Information
This work was supported by CSIRO early and mid-career fellowships, the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Innovations in Peptide and Protein Science (CE200100012) and Research Council Discovery Project (DP210101705).
Funding received from the Australian Research Council (ARC)
CE200100012, DP210101705
Administering Institution
Edith Cowan University
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Bose, U., Juhász, A., Daneri-Castro, N., Okada, S., Broadbent, J. A., Byrne, K., Stockwell, S., Yu, R., Ral, J., & Colgrave, M. L. (2026). Aleurone layer multi-omics reveals constitutive enzyme-inhibitor imbalance in LMA-contrasting wheat cultivars. Plant Physiology and Biochemistry, 239, Article 111757. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.plaphy.2026.111757