Molnár, I., Šimková, H., Leverington-Waite, M., Goram, R., Cseh, A., Vrána, J., Farkas, A., Doležel, J., Molnár-Láng, M., Griffiths, S.
PLoS ONE
8:
e70844,
2013
Keywords:
Abstract:
Diploid Aegilops umbellulata and Ae. comosa and their natural allotetraploid hybrids Ae. biuncialis and Ae. geniculata are
important wild gene sources for wheat. With the aim of assisting in alien gene transfer, this study provides gene-based
conserved orthologous set (COS) markers for the U and M genome chromosomes. Out of the 140 markers tested on a series
of wheat-Aegilops chromosome introgression lines and flow-sorted subgenomic chromosome fractions, 100 were assigned
to Aegilops chromosomes and six and seven duplications were identified in the U and M genomes, respectively. The markerspecific
EST sequences were BLAST-ed to Brachypodium and rice genomic sequences to investigate macrosyntenic
relationships between the U and M genomes of Aegilops, wheat and the model species. Five syntenic regions of
Brachypodium identified genome rearrangements differentiating the U genome from the M genome and from the D
genome of wheat. All of them seem to have evolved at the diploid level and to have been modified differentially in the
polyploid species Ae. biuncialis and Ae. geniculata. A certain level of wheat–Aegilops homology was detected for group 1, 2,
3 and 5 chromosomes, while a clearly rearranged structure was showed for the group 4, 6 and 7 Aegilops chromosomes
relative to wheat. The conserved orthologous set markers assigned to Aegilops chromosomes promise to accelerate gene
introgression by facilitating the identification of alien chromatin. The syntenic relationships between the Aegilops species,
wheat and model species will facilitate the targeted development of new markers specific for U and M genomic regions and
will contribute to the understanding of molecular processes related to allopolyploidization.
Fulltext: contact IEB authors
IEB authors: Jaroslav Doležel,
Hana Šimková,
Jan Vrána
