Abstract
Global climate warming poses a serious threat to wheat production. Existing studies have primarily focused on the impact of heat stress on wheat yield, but the effect on its quality remains uncertain, especially at a global scale. To fill this knowledge gap, we conducted a global meta-analysis integrating 1976 observations from 95 peer-reviewed studies, encompassing nine key wheat quality traits. Using a random-effects model, we quantified the overall impact of heat stress and explored its influencing factors. Our results show that, compared with optimal temperature conditions, heat stress significantly reduced two major quality traits, specifically thousand-kernel weight (-12.7%) and starch content (-6.5%), while increasing protein (+7.2%) and wet gluten content (+8.0%). Subgroup analyses revealed consistent quality response trends across different wheat types, albeit with varying magnitudes. Interestingly, wheat varieties with a significantly higher protein content under heat stress often show a smaller decrease in starch content, which highlights the compensatory relationship between carbon and nitrogen metabolism. Among all developmental stages, the grain filling phase was the most sensitive to heat stress, exerting the greatest negative effect on wheat quality. Furthermore, elevated soil potassium levels were found to mitigate some of the adverse effects, emphasizing the potential of nutrient management as an adaptation strategy. These findings elucidated the complex mechanisms of wheat quality changes under heat stress and emphasized the importance of enhancing climate adaptability through strategies such as optimizing sowing dates, potassium fertilizer management, and breeding heat-tolerant varieties, providing a scientific basis for global food security and high-quality wheat production.
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Claims 9
Claim · model-written summary
Heat stress significantly reduced thousand-kernel weight in wheat by 12.7% compared with optimal temperature conditions.
- Taxon
- Wheat
Triticum aestivumt0 - Treatment
- heat stresse0
- Outcome
- thousand-kernel weighte0
- Direction
- reducede0
- Value
- -12.7%e0
- Comparator
- optimal temperature conditionse0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“compared with optimal temperature conditions, heat stress significantly reduced two major quality traits, specifically thousand-kernel weight (-12.7%)”
t0“Wheat”
Claim · model-written summary
Heat stress significantly reduced wheat starch content by 6.5% compared with optimal temperature conditions.
- Taxon
- WheatTriticum aestivumt0
- Treatment
- heat stresse0
- Outcome
- starch contente0
- Direction
- reducede0
- Value
- -6.5%e0
- Comparator
- optimal temperature conditionse0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“compared with optimal temperature conditions, heat stress significantly reduced two major quality traits, specifically thousand-kernel weight (-12.7%) and starch content (-6.5%)”
t0“Wheat”
Claim · model-written summary
Heat stress significantly increased wheat protein content by 7.2% compared with optimal temperature conditions.
- Taxon
- WheatTriticum aestivumt0
- Treatment
- heat stresse0
- Outcome
- proteine0
- Direction
- increasinge0
- Value
- +7.2%e0
- Comparator
- optimal temperature conditionse0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“compared with optimal temperature conditions, heat stress significantly reduced two major quality traits, specifically thousand-kernel weight (-12.7%) and starch content (-6.5%), while increasing protein (+7.2%)”
t0“Wheat”
Claim · model-written summary
Heat stress significantly increased wheat wet gluten content by 8.0% compared with optimal temperature conditions.
- Taxon
- WheatTriticum aestivumt0
- Treatment
- heat stresse0
- Outcome
- wet gluten contente0
- Direction
- increasinge0
- Value
- +8.0%e0
- Comparator
- optimal temperature conditionse0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“compared with optimal temperature conditions, heat stress significantly reduced two major quality traits, specifically thousand-kernel weight (-12.7%) and starch content (-6.5%), while increasing protein (+7.2%) and wet gluten content (+8.0%)”
t0“Wheat”
Claim · model-written summary
Subgroup analyses showed consistent quality response trends to heat stress across different wheat types, with differing magnitudes.
- Taxon
- wheatTriticum aestivume1
- Outcome
- quality response trendse1
- Qualifier
- varying magnitudese1
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e1“Subgroup analyses revealed consistent quality response trends across different wheat types, albeit with varying magnitudes”
Claim · model-written summary
Wheat varieties with significantly higher protein content under heat stress often showed a smaller decrease in starch content.
- Taxon
- wheatTriticum aestivume2
- Treatment
- heat stresse2
- Outcome
- starch contente2
- Direction
- smaller decreasee2
- Qualifier
- higher protein contente2
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e2“wheat varieties with a significantly higher protein content under heat stress often show a smaller decrease in starch content”
Claim · model-written summary
The grain filling phase was the developmental stage most sensitive to heat stress, with the greatest negative effect on wheat quality.
- Taxon
- wheatTriticum aestivume3
- Organ / stage
- grain filling phasee3
- Treatment
- heat stresse3
- Outcome
- wheat qualitye3
- Direction
- greatest negative effecte3
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e3“Among all developmental stages, the grain filling phase was the most sensitive to heat stress, exerting the greatest negative effect on wheat quality”
Claim · model-written summary
Elevated soil potassium levels mitigated some of the adverse effects of heat stress on wheat quality.
- Taxon
- WheatTriticum aestivumt0
- Treatment
- elevated soil potassium levelse4
- Outcome
- adverse effectse4
- Direction
- mitigatee4
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e4“elevated soil potassium levels were found to mitigate some of the adverse effects”
t0“Wheat”
Claim · model-written summary
The authors emphasize improving climate adaptability of wheat through optimizing sowing dates, potassium fertilizer management and breeding heat-tolerant varieties.
- Taxon
- WheatTriticum aestivumt0
- Outcome
- climate adaptabilitye5
- Qualifier
- optimizing sowing dates, potassium fertilizer management, and breeding heat-tolerant varietiese5
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e5“emphasized the importance of enhancing climate adaptability through strategies such as optimizing sowing dates, potassium fertilizer management, and breeding heat-tolerant varieties”
t0“Wheat”
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See all 309 papers →Claims are grouped by organism, treatment and what was measured or targeted. A paper counts as positive when any of its claims in the group is positive.