Full Length Research Paper

Genetic variations of m-type LMW-GS genes and their associations with dough quality in Triticum turgidum ssp. turgidum landraces from China

Wei Li^1,3, Zhen Gao^1,2, Yu-Ming Wei^1,2, Zhi-En Pu^1,3, Guo-Yue Chen^1,2, Ya-Xi Liu^1,2, Hua-Ping Chen¹, Xiu-Jin Lan² and You-Liang Zheng¹*

¹Key Laboratory of Crop Genetic Resources and Improvement in Southwest China, Ministry of Education, Sichuan Agricultural University, Yaan, Sichuan 625014, China.

²Triticeae Research Institute, Sichuan Agricultural University, Yaan, Sichuan 625014, China.

³College of Agronomy, Sichuan Agricultural University, Yaan, Sichuan 625014, China.

*Corresponding author. E-mail: ylzheng@sicau.edu.cn.  Tel: 86-835-2882620. Fax: 86-835-2883153.

Accepted 1 March, 2012

 Abstract

Genetic variations of the four subgroups of m-type low-molecular-weight glutenin subunits (LMW-GS) genes and their associations with dough quality parameters were investigated through the group-specific markers in 68 landraces of Triticum turgidum ssp. turgidum from China. The number of alleles were two, three, three and two respectively by the markers Glu3A.2, Glu3B.1, Glu3B.2 and Glu3A.3, which was one-to-one correspondence to the “MDTSCIP-”, “MENSHIP-”, “METSHIPS-” and “METSCIP-” subgroups of m-type LMW-GS genes respectively. Results from the sequencing of PCR products further confirmed m-type LMW-GS genes from tetraploid landraces. The widespread variation of dough quality parameters were observed in all accessions and their association with the alleles of m-type LMW-GS genes were also investigated by crosstab analysis. We found that allele variations in “METSHIPS-” subgroup of m-type LMW-GS genes were significantly linked with gluten index at (K=14.02, P<0.05), time to breakdown at (K=11.88, P<0.05) and protein content at (K=24.45, P<0.001) showed that “METSHIPS-” subgroup of m-type LMW-GS genes have profound effects on dough quality. Our results also suggested that group-specific markers for “METSHIPS-” subgroup of LMW-GS genes could be used in wheat quality improvement and marker-assisted breeding programs.

Key words: Genetic diversity, landraces, m-type LMW-GS, quality, Triticum turgidum ssp. turgidum.