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Conserved globulin gene across eight grass genomes identify fundamental units of the loci encoding seed storage proteins

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Abstract

The wheat high molecular weight (HMW) glutenins are important seed storage proteins that determine bread-making quality in hexaploid wheat (Triticum aestivum). In this study, detailed comparative sequence analyses of large orthologous HMW glutenin genomic regions from eight grass species, representing a wide evolutionary history of grass genomes, reveal a number of lineage-specific sequence changes. These lineage-specific changes, which resulted in duplications, insertions, and deletions of genes, are the major forces disrupting gene colinearity among grass genomes. Our results indicate that the presence of the HMW glutenin gene in Triticeae genomes was caused by lineage-specific duplication of a globulin gene. This tandem duplication event is shared by Brachypodium and Triticeae genomes, but is absent in rice, maize, and sorghum, suggesting the duplication occurred after Brachypodium and Triticeae genomes diverged from the other grasses ~35 Ma ago. Aside from their physical location in tandem, the sequence similarity, expression pattern, and conserved cis-acting elements responsible for endosperm-specific expression further support the paralogous relationship between the HMW glutenin and globulin genes. While the duplicated copy in Brachypodium has apparently become nonfunctional, the duplicated copy in wheat has evolved to become the HMW glutenin gene by gaining a central prolamin repetitive domain.

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Acknowledgment

The authors thank Jorge Dubcovsky for providing T. monococcum BAC clones, Sekou Health for assistance in the BAC sequencing, and Gerard R. Lazo for bioinformatics support. This work was supported in part by NSF Grant DBI-0638558 and by the United State Department of Agriculture, Agriculture Research Service CRIS 532502100-000 and 532502100-000.

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  1. Western Regional Research Center, United States Department of Agricultural-Agricultural Research Service, 800 Buchanan Street, Albany, CA, 94710, USA

    Yong Qiang Gu, Humphrey Wanjugi, Devin Coleman-Derr & Olin D. Anderson

  2. National Key Facility for Crop Gene Resources and Genetic Improvement, Key Laboratory of Crop Germplasm Resources and Utilization, MOA, Institute of Crop Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, No. 12 South Street, Zhongguancun, Beijing, 10081, People’s Republic of China

    Xiuying Kong

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  1. Yong Qiang Gu
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Correspondence to Yong Qiang Gu.

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Authors Yong Qiang Gu and Humphrey Wanjugi contribute equally to the work.

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Supplementary Table 1

BLAST search of annotated genes at the orthologous Glu-1 region against the EST databases (XLS 25 kb)

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Gu, Y.Q., Wanjugi, H., Coleman-Derr, D. et al. Conserved globulin gene across eight grass genomes identify fundamental units of the loci encoding seed storage proteins. Funct Integr Genomics 10, 111–122 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10142-009-0135-x

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