Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-g7gxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T22:06:58.715Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Exploring the genetic diversity of the DRF1 gene in durum wheat and its wild relatives

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 March 2011

Domenico Di Bianco
Affiliation:
ENEA Casaccia (UTAGRI-GEN), Rome, Italy Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, Pisa, Italy
Karthikeyan Thiyagarajan
Affiliation:
ENEA Casaccia (UTAGRI-GEN), Rome, Italy Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, Pisa, Italy
Arianna Latini
Affiliation:
ENEA Casaccia (UTAGRI-GEN), Rome, Italy
Cristina Cantale
Affiliation:
ENEA Casaccia (UTAGRI-GEN), Rome, Italy
Fabio Felici
Affiliation:
ENEA Casaccia (UTAGRI-GEN), Rome, Italy
Patrizia Galeffi*
Affiliation:
ENEA Casaccia (UTAGRI-GEN), Rome, Italy
*
*Corresponding author. E-mail: galeffi@enea.it

Abstract

A drought-related gene belonging to the Dehydration Responsive Element Binding protein (DREB) family has been reported and characterized in durum wheat. Unlike other DREB-homologous genes, it consists of four exons and three introns and produces three transcripts by an alternative splicing mechanism. The gene sequence was analysed in a number of varieties/lines/accessions of durum wheat, triticale and in wheat genome donors, Aegilops speltoides, A. tauschii and Triticum urartu, in order to evaluate the variability and to detect other interesting molecular features. Herewith, some results are presented. In the exon 1, a single sequence repeat codifying for a stretch of alanine residues variable in length (from 3 to 7), was identified. A novel non-autonomous transposon was identified, encompassing the intron1–intron3 region and this was characterized in detail. Part of the exon 4, containing the APetala2 (AP2) domain, responsible for DNA recognition and binding, was isolated and sequenced in a collection of Aegilops species and A. speltoides accessions from the Fertile Crescent, a region characterized by a high wheat biodiversity. Although the 338 bp-long analysed sequences did not reveal substantial differences in the polymorphic patterns, using a geographic subdivision with three clusters (east, centre and west), they completely separated Aegilops from the A. speltoides genus.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © NIAB 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Egawa, C, Kobayashi, F, Ishibashi, M, Nakamura, T, Nakamura, C and Takumi, S (2006) Differential regulation of transcript accumulation and alternative splicing of a DREB2 homolog under abiotic stress conditions in common wheat. Genes Genetics and Systems 81: 7791.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Excoffier, L, Laval, G and Schneider, S (2005) Arlequin ver 3.0: an integrated software package for population genetics data analysis. Evolutionary Bioinformatics 1: 4750.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huson, DH and Bryant, D (2006) Application of phylogenetic networks in evolutionary studies. Molecular Biology and Evolution 23: 254267.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kohany, O, Gentles, AJ, Hankus, L and Jurka, J (2006) Annotation, submission and screening of repetitive elements in Repbase: Repbase Submitter and Censor. BMC Bioinformatics 7: 474.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kurtz, S, Choudhuri, JV, Ohlebusch, E, Schleiermacher, C, Stoye, J and Giegerich, R (2001) REPuter: the manifold applications of repeat analysis on a genomic scale. Nucleic Acids Research 29: 46334642.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Latini, A, Rasi, C, Sperandei, M, Cantale, C, Iannetta, M, Dettori, M, Ammar, K and Galeffi, P (2007) Identification of a DREB-related gene in Triticum durum and its expression under water stress conditions. Annals of Applied Biology 150: 187195.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Levinson, G and Gutman, GA (1987) Slipped-strand mispairing: a major mechanism for DNA sequence evolution. Molecular Biology and Evolution 4: 203221.Google Scholar
Nei, M (1987) Molecular Evolutionary Genetics. New York: Columbia University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nielsen, R (2005) Molecular signatures of natural selection. Annual Review of Genetics 39: 197218.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rossetto, M, McNally, J and Henry, RJ (2002) Evaluating the potential of SSR flanking regions for examining taxonomic relationships in the Vitaceae. Theoretical and Applied Genetics 104: 6166.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rozas, J, Sanchez-Delbarrio, JC, Messeguer, X and Rozas, R (2003) DnaSP, DNA polymorphism analyses by the coalescent and other methods. Bioinformatics 19: 24962497.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tamura, K, Dudley, J, Nei, M and Kumar, S (2007) MEGA4: Molecular Evolutionary genetics analysis (MEGA) software version 4.0. Molecular Biology and Evolution 24: 15961599.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Taylor, JS, Durkin, JMH and Breden, F (1999) The death of a microsatellite: a phylogenetic perspective on microsatellite interruptions. Molecular Biology and Evolution 16: 567572.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Thiyagarajan, K, Latini, A, Galeffi, P and Porceddu, E (2009) A non-autonomous DNA transposon inserted in the first and third intron of the AsDRF1 gene. Repbase Reports 9(3): 726, ISSN# 1534-830X.Google Scholar
Xue, G and Loveridge, CW (2004) HvDRF1 is involved in abscisic acid-mediated gene regulation in barley and produces two forms of AP2 transcriptional activators, interacting preferably with a CT-rich element. The Plant Journal 37: 326339.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Supplementary material: File

Di Bianco Supplementary Material

Di Bianco Supplementary Material

Download Di Bianco Supplementary Material(File)
File 302.1 KB