Tetraploid and hexaploid wheat varieties reveal large differences in expression of alpha-gliadins from homoelogous Gli-loci

• Published in: BMC genomics 2009, Vol.10
• Main Authors: Salentijn, E.M.J, Goryunova, S.V, Bas, N, Meer, I.M., van der, Broeck, H.C., van den, Bastien, T.A, Gilissen, L.J.W.J, Smulders, M.J.M
• Format: Article
• Subjects: celiac-disease patients; diversity; dna pools; gene family; genomes; gluten; protein; pyrosequencing(tm); single-nucleotide polymorphisms; t-cell epitope
• ISSN: 1471-2164; 1471-2164

Background - A-gliadins form a multigene protein family encoded by multiple ¿-gliadin (Gli-2) genes at three genomic loci, Gli-A2, Gli-B2 and Gli-D2, respectively located on the homoeologous wheat chromosomes 6AS, 6BS, and 6DS. These proteins contain a number of important celiac disease (CD)-immunogenic domains. The ¿-gliadins expressed from the Gli-B2 locus harbour fewer conserved CD-epitopes than those from Gli-A2, whereas the Gli-D2 gliadins have the highest CD-immunogenic potential. In order to detect differences in the highly CD-immunogenic ¿-gliadin fraction we determined the relative expression level from the homoeologous Gli-2 loci in various tetraploid and hexaploid wheat genotypes by using a quantitative pyrosequencing method and by analyzing expressed sequence tag (EST) sequences. Results - We detected large differences in relative expression levels of ¿-gliadin genes from the three homoeologous loci among wheat genotypes, both as relative numbers of expressed sequence tag (EST) sequences from specific varieties and when using a quantitative pyrosequencing assay specific for Gli-A2 genes. The relative Gli-A2 expression level in a tetraploid durum wheat cultivar ('Probstdorfer Pandur') was 41%. In genotypes derived from landraces, the Gli-A2 frequency varied between 12% and 58%. In some advanced hexaploid bread wheat cultivars the genes from locus Gli-B2 were hardly expressed (e.g., less than 5% in 'Lavett') but in others they made up more than 40% (e.g., in 'Baldus'). Conclusion - Here, we have shown that large differences exist in relative expression levels of ¿-gliadins from the homoeologous Gli-2 loci among wheat genotypes. Since the homoelogous genes differ in the amount of conserved CD-epitopes, screening for differential expression from the homoeologous Gli-2 loci can be employed for the pre-selection of wheat varieties in the search for varieties with very low CD-immunogenic potential. Pyrosequencing is a method that can be employed for such a 'gene family-specific quantitative transcriptome profiling'