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The molecular diversity of α-gliadin genes in the tribe Triticeae

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Abstract

Many of the unique properties of wheat flour are derived from seed storage proteins such as the α-gliadins. In this study these α-gliadin genes from diploid Triticeae species were systemically characterized, and divided into 3 classes according to the distinct organization of their protein domains. Our analyses indicated that these α-gliadins varied in the number of cysteine residues they contained. Most of the α-gliadin genes were grouped according to their genomic origins within the phylogenetic tree. As expected, sequence alignments suggested that the repetitive domain and the two polyglutamine regions were responsible for length variations of α-gliadins as were the insertion/deletion of structural domains within the three different classes (I, II, and III) of α-gliadins. A screening of celiac disease toxic epitopes indicated that the α-gliadins of the class II, derived from the Ns genome, contain no epitope, and that some other genomes contain much fewer epitopes than the A, S(B) and D genomes of wheat. Our results suggest that the observed genetic differences in α-gliadins of Triticeae might indicate their use as a fertile ground for the breeding of less CD-toxic wheat varieties.

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Acknowledgments

The authors give special thanks to Prof. Yong-Hong Zhou and Deng-Cai Liu for providing the plant materials. The accessions with PI numbers were kindly provided by USDA-ARS (http://www.ars-grin.gov). The accessions with AS numbers were deposited at Triticeae Research Institute, Sichuan Agricultural University, China. This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31230053).

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Authors and Affiliations

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

    Peng-Fei Qi, Qing Chen, Zhao Wang, Cheng-Xing Le, Yu-Ming Wei, Xiu-Jin Lan & You-Liang Zheng

  2. Eastern Cereal and Oilseed Research Centre, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, 960 Carling Ave, Ottawa, ON, K1A 0C6, Canada

    Thérèse Ouellet

  3. Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Crop Genetic Resources and Improvement in Southwest China, Sichuan Agricultural University, Wenjiang, Chengdu, 611130, Sichuan, China

    You-Liang Zheng

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  1. Peng-Fei Qi
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  2. Qing Chen
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  4. Zhao Wang
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Correspondence to Yu-Ming Wei or You-Liang Zheng.

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Qi, PF., Chen, Q., Ouellet, T. et al. The molecular diversity of α-gliadin genes in the tribe Triticeae . Genetica 141, 303–310 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10709-013-9729-2

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