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The cold-regulated transcriptional activator Cbf3 is linked to the frost-tolerance locus Fr-A2 on wheat chromosome 5A

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Abstract

Wheat chromosome 5A plays a key role in cold acclimation and frost tolerance. The major frost tolerance gene Fr-A1 (formerly Fr1) and two loci that regulate the transcription of cold-regulated genes (Cor) have previously been mapped on the long arm of this chromosome. In this study we report the discovery of a new locus for frost tolerance designated Fr-A2. This new locus was mapped on the long arm of chromosome 5A of diploid wheat (T. monococcum), 40 cM from the centromere and 30 cM proximal to the major frost tolerance locus Fr-A1. We found also that frost-tolerant and frost-susceptible T. monococcum parental lines differed in the transcription level of the cold induced gene Cor14b when plants were grown at 15°C. Transcription levels of this gene were measured in each of the recombinant inbred lines and mapped as a QTL that perfectly overlapped the QTL for frost survival at the Fr-A2 locus. This result suggested that frost tolerance in this cross was mediated by differential regulation of the expression of the Cor genes. In a previous study in hexaploid wheat (T. aestivum) we had shown that Cor14b was regulated by two loci located on chromosome 5A, one in the same chromosome region as the T. monococcum Fr-A2 locus and the other one closely linked to Fr-A1. Since CBF transcriptional activators in Arabidopsis regulate Cor genes and are involved in frost tolerance, we decided to localize the cold-regulated CBF-like barley gene Cbf3 on the T. monococcum map. This gene was mapped on the peak of the Fr-A2 QTL for frost tolerance. This result suggests that the observed differential regulation of Cor14b at the Fr-A2 locus is due to allelic variation at the XCbf3 locus, and that this transcriptional activator gene might be a candidate gene for the Fr-A2 frost tolerance locus on wheat chromosome 5A.

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Acknowledgements

J. Dubcovsky acknowledges financial support from the United States National Science Foundation (Grant NSF-MTA-OTKA 0095051) and the Department of Agriculture, National Research Initiative (Grant 2000-1678) and ZFAFS grant 2001-0446. G. Galiba was supported by OTKA T34277, OMFB-02579/2000, NKFP4/038, Marton-3,2, by the CNR-MTA Hungarian Italian cooperation program (Project No. 15/MTA 401), and by the MTA-OTKA-NSF cooperation program (Project No. MTA 1/2001/A.). L. Cattivelli received the support of GENFUN-MIUR and MiToS-MiPAF. A. Vágújfalvi was the recipient of a János Bolyai Research Grant. The authors also express their gratitude to Tony Chen and Pat Hayes for supplying the Dicktoo CBF3 barley clone and to L. Stheli for excellent technical assistance.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Agronomy and Range Science, University of California, One Shields Avenue, Davis, CA 95616-8515, USA

    A. Vágújfalvi & J. Dubcovsky

  2. Agricultural Research Institute of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, 2462, Martonvásár, Hungary

    A. Vágújfalvi & G. Galiba

  3. Experimental Institute for Cereal Research, 29017, Fiorenzuola d'Arda, Italy

    L. Cattivelli

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  1. A. Vágújfalvi
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  2. G. Galiba
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  3. L. Cattivelli
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  4. J. Dubcovsky
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Correspondence to J. Dubcovsky.

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Communicated by R. Hagemann

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Vágújfalvi, A., Galiba, G., Cattivelli, L. et al. The cold-regulated transcriptional activator Cbf3 is linked to the frost-tolerance locus Fr-A2 on wheat chromosome 5A. Mol Gen Genomics 269, 60–67 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00438-003-0806-6

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