Slade et al. describe the application of TILLING to the identification of an allelic series of variants in the granule-bound starch synthase I (GBSSI) gene in hexaploid and tetraploid wheat. GBSSI or Waxy plays a critical role in the synthesis of amylose, which, in addition to amylopectin, comprises the starch fraction of the seed. Reduction or loss of GBSSI function results in starch with a de...

Wheat is one of the major cereal crops with annual global production over 600 MT from about 200 M hectares (FAO 2012). The cultivation of wheat started about 10,000 years ago as part of the Neolithic revolution which state a transition from hunting and gathering of food to settle agriculture. Earlier cultivated forms of wheat were diploid (einkorn) and tetraploid (emmer) with known initial orig...

Plants are the most important source of Fe for humans and animals; therefore, its accumulation in edible plant parts is great importance. Since species, ecotypes, genotypes, lines, varieties may differ their ability to accumulate mineral elements, aim this study was i) examine grain Aegilops Triticum species with different genomes (AA, BB, BBAA, BBAADD), ii) relationship between level ploidy ac...

Fusarium head blight (scab) is one of the most widespread and damaging diseases of wheat, causing grain yield and quality losses and production of harmful mycotoxins. Development of resistant varieties is hampered by lack of effective resistance sources in the tetraploid wheat primary gene pool. Here we dissected the genetic basis of resistance in a new durum wheat (Triticum turgidum ssp. durum...

Gene loss during the formation of hexaploid bread wheat has been repeatedly reported. However, our knowledge on genome-wide analysis of the genes present on a single subgenome (SSG) in bread wheat is still limited. In this study, by analysing the 'Chinese Spring' chromosome arm shotgun sequences together with high-confidence gene models, we detected 433 genes on a SSG. Greater gene loss was obs...

Physical mapping methods that do not rely on meiotic recombination are necessary for complex polyploid genomes such as wheat (Triticum aestivum L.). This need is due to the uneven distribution of recombination and significant variation in genetic to physical distance ratios. One method that has proven valuable in a number of nonplant and plant systems is radiation hybrid (RH) mapping. This work...

Wcor15, a member of the wheat cold-responsive (Cor) gene family, has been isolated and characterized. The deduced polypeptide WCOR15 (MW=14.7 kDa) showed high homology to the previously identified wheat and barley COR proteins. Southern blot analysis using diploid, tetraploid and hexaploid wheat and diploid Aegilops species showed that the wheat and related wild genomes possessed multiple copie...