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Characterization of HMW-GSs and their gene inaction in tetraploid wheat

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Abstract

In this study, we report the expression of HMW-GSs in 87 accessions of tetraploid wheat, the characterization of three inactive and one active HMW glutenin genes, and the functional verification of HMW-GSs by promoter–GUS expression. SDS-PAGE profiles revealed that tetraploid wheat has many different combinations of HMW-GSs and the number of subunits varies from 1 to 4. HMW glutenin genes at the Glu-A1x, Glu-A1y and Glu-B1y loci exhibited different frequencies of inaction while the Glu-B1x allele was expressed in all 87 accessions. Gene cloning showed that only 1Bx (Tdu-e) could express a full-length protein and its deduced protein sequence has the typical primary structure but with fewer cysteine residues. The expression of the other three HMW glutenin genes has been disrupted by stop codons in their repetitive domains. Besides short indels or mutations of one or more bases, an 85-bp deletion and a 185-bp insertion were found in the promoter regions of 1Ay (Tdu-s) and 1Bx (Tdu-e). The transient expression of promoter–GUS constructs indicated that the 1Ay promoter can drive expression of the GUS gene. We conclude that defects (stop codons or the insertion of large transposon-like elements) in the coding regions may be the most probable cause for the inaction of the HMW glutenin genes.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31000167 and 31171556), China Transgenic Research Program (2011ZX08002-001,004 and 005) and the National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program 2010 CB134400).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Triticeae Research Institute, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu, 611130, Sichuan, China

    Qian-Tao Jiang, Jian Ma, Shan Zhao, Quan-Zhi Zhao, Xiu-Jin Lan, Shou-Fen Dai & Yu-Ming Wei

  2. Lethbridge Research Centre, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Lethbridge, T1J4B1, Canada

    Zhen-Xiang Lu

  3. Key Laboratory of Southwestern Crop Germplasm Utilization, Ministry of Agriculture, Ya’an, 625014, Sichuan, China

    You-Liang Zheng

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  1. Qian-Tao Jiang
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  2. Jian Ma
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Correspondence to Yu-Ming Wei.

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Jiang, QT., Ma, J., Zhao, S. et al. Characterization of HMW-GSs and their gene inaction in tetraploid wheat. Genetica 140, 325–335 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10709-012-9683-4

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