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Large deletions in the CBF gene cluster at the Fr-B2 locus are associated with reduced frost tolerance in wheat.

ABSTRACT: Wheat plants which are exposed to periods of low temperatures (cold acclimation) exhibit increased survival rates when they are subsequently exposed to freezing temperatures. This process is associated with large-scale changes in the transcriptome which are modulated by a set of tandemly duplicated C-repeat Binding Factor (CBF) transcription factors located at the Frost Resistance-2 (Fr-2) locus. While Arabidopsis has three tandemly duplicated CBF genes, the CBF family in wheat has undergone an expansion and at least 15 CBF genes have been identified, 11 of which are present at the Fr-2 loci on homeologous group 5 chromosomes. We report here the discovery of three large deletions which eliminate 6, 9, and all 11 CBF genes from the Fr-B2 locus in tetraploid and hexaploid wheat. In wild emmer wheat, the Fr-B2 deletions were found only among the accessions from the southern sub-populations. Among cultivated wheats, the Fr-B2 deletions were more common among varieties with a spring growth habit than among those with a winter growth habit. Replicated freezing tolerance experiments showed that both the deletion of nine CBF genes in tetraploid wheat and the complete Fr-B2 deletion in hexaploid wheat were associated with significant reductions in survival after exposure to freezing temperatures. Our results suggest that selection for the wild-type Fr-B2 allele may be beneficial for breeders selecting for varieties with improved frost tolerance.

SUBMITTER: Pearce S

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4779059 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Large deletions in the CBF gene cluster at the Fr-B2 locus are associated with reduced frost tolerance in wheat.

Pearce Stephen S Zhu Jie J Boldizsár Ákos Á Vágújfalvi Attila A Burke Adrienne A Garland-Campbell Kimberley K Galiba Gábor G Dubcovsky Jorge J

TAG. Theoretical and applied genetics. Theoretische und angewandte Genetik 20130725 11

Wheat plants which are exposed to periods of low temperatures (cold acclimation) exhibit increased survival rates when they are subsequently exposed to freezing temperatures. This process is associated with large-scale changes in the transcriptome which are modulated by a set of tandemly duplicated C-repeat Binding Factor (CBF) transcription factors located at the Frost Resistance-2 (Fr-2) locus. While Arabidopsis has three tandemly duplicated CBF genes, the CBF family in wheat has undergone an ...[more]

PMID: 23884601

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Project description:BackgroundUnderstanding the genetic basis of frost tolerance (FT) in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) is essential for preventing yield losses caused by frost due to cellular damage, dehydration and reduced metabolism. FT is a complex trait regulated by a number of genes and several gene families. Availability of the wheat genomic sequence opens new opportunities for exploring candidate genes diversity for FT. Therefore, the objectives of this study were to identity SNPs and insertion-deletion (indels) in genes known to be involved in frost tolerance and to perform association genetics analysis of respective SNPs and indels on FT.ResultsHere we report on the sequence analysis of 19 candidate genes for FT in wheat assembled using the Chinese Spring IWGSC RefSeq v1.0. Out of these, the tandem duplicated C-repeat binding factors (CBF), i.e. CBF-A3, CBF-A5, CBF-A10, CBF-A13, CBF-A14, CBF-A15, CBF-A18, the vernalisation response gene VRN-A1, VRN-B3, the photoperiod response genes PPD-B1 and PPD-D1 revealed association to FT in 235 wheat cultivars. Within six genes (CBF-A3, CBF-A15, VRN-A1, VRN-B3, PPD-B1 and PPD-D1) amino acid (AA) substitutions in important protein domains were identified. The amino acid substitution effect in VRN-A1 on FT was confirmed and new AA substitutions in CBF-A3, CBF-A15, VRN-B3, PPD-B1 and PPD-D1 located at highly conserved sites were detected. Since these results rely on phenotypic data obtained at five locations in 2 years, detection of significant associations of FT to AA changes in CBF-A3, CBF-A15, VRN-A1, VRN-B3, PPD-B1 and PPD-D1 may be exploited in marker assisted breeding for frost tolerance in winter wheat.ConclusionsA set of 65 primer pairs for the genes mentioned above from a previous study was BLASTed against the IWGSC RefSeq resulting in the identification of 39 primer combinations covering the full length of 19 genes. This work demonstrates the usefulness of the IWGSC RefSeq in specific primer development for highly conserved gene families in hexaploid wheat and, that a candidate gene association genetics approach based on the sequence data is an efficient tool to identify new alleles of genes important for the response to abiotic stress in wheat.

Dataset Information

Large deletions in the CBF gene cluster at the Fr-B2 locus are associated with reduced frost tolerance in wheat.

Publications

Large deletions in the CBF gene cluster at the Fr-B2 locus are associated with reduced frost tolerance in wheat.

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