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PCR-based isolation and identification of full-length low-molecular-weight glutenin subunit genes in bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.)

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Abstract

Low-molecular-weight glutenin subunits (LMW-GSs) are encoded by a multi-gene family and are essential for determining the quality of wheat flour products, such as bread and noodles. However, the exact role or contribution of individual LMW-GS genes to wheat quality remains unclear. This is, at least in part, due to the difficulty in characterizing complete sequences of all LMW-GS gene family members in bread wheat. To identify full-length LMW-GS genes, a polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based method was established, consisting of newly designed conserved primers and the previously developed LMW-GS gene molecular marker system. Using the PCR-based method, 17 LMW-GS genes were identified and characterized in Xiaoyan 54, of which 12 contained full-length sequences. Sequence alignments showed that 13 LMW-GS genes were identical to those found in Xiaoyan 54 using the genomic DNA library screening, and the other four full-length LMW-GS genes were first isolated from Xiaoyan 54. In Chinese Spring, 16 unique LMW-GS genes were isolated, and 13 of them contained full-length coding sequences. Additionally, 16 and 17 LMW-GS genes in Dongnong 101 and Lvhan 328 (chosen from the micro-core collections of Chinese germplasm), respectively, were also identified. Sequence alignments revealed that at least 15 LMW-GS genes were common in the four wheat varieties, and allelic variants of each gene shared high sequence identities (>95%) but exhibited length polymorphism in repetitive regions. This study provides a PCR-based method for efficiently identifying LMW-GS genes in bread wheat, which will improve the characterization of complex members of the LMW-GS gene family and facilitate the understanding of their contributions to wheat quality.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology of China (2009CB118300) and the Ministry of Agriculture of China for transgenic research (2008ZX08009-003 and 2008ZX08002-004).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Plant Cell and Chromosome Engineering, National Center for Plant Gene Research, Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 1 West Beichen Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing, 100101, China

    Xiaofei Zhang, Dongcheng Liu, Wei Jiang, Wenlong Yang, Jiazhu Sun, Hongqing Ling & Aimin Zhang

  2. College of Biology, China Agricultural University, 1 Yuanmingyuan Xilu, Haidian District, Beijing, 100193, China

    Xiaoli Guo

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  1. Xiaofei Zhang
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  2. Dongcheng Liu
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  3. Wei Jiang
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  4. Xiaoli Guo
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  5. Wenlong Yang
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  6. Jiazhu Sun
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Correspondence to Aimin Zhang.

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Communicated by P. Langridge.

X. Zhang and D. Liu contributed equally to this work.

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Zhang, X., Liu, D., Jiang, W. et al. PCR-based isolation and identification of full-length low-molecular-weight glutenin subunit genes in bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.). Theor Appl Genet 123, 1293–1305 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00122-011-1667-8

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