Authors: Fuminori Kobayashi Shigeo Takumi Hirokazu Handa
Publish Date: 2010/04/18
Volume: 121, Issue: 4, Pages: 629-641
Abstract
Responsiveness to abscisic acid ABA during vegetative growth plays an important role in regulating adaptive responses to various environmental conditions including activation of a number of ABAresponsive genes However the relationship between gene expression and responsiveness to ABA at the seedling stage has not been well studied in wheat In the present study quantitative trait locus QTL analysis for ABA responsiveness at the seedling stage was performed using recombinant inbred lines derived from a cross between common wheat cultivars showing different ABA responsiveness Five QTLs were found to be significant located on chromosomes 1B 2A 3A 6D and 7B The QTL with the greatest effect was located on chromosome 6D and explained 1112 of the variance in ABA responsiveness The other QTLs each accounted for approximately 5–8 of the phenotypic variation Expression analyses of three ABAresponsive Cor/Lea genes Wdhn13 Wrab15 and Wrab17 showed that allelic differences in QTLs on chromosomes 2A 6D and 7B influenced expression of these genes in seedlings treated with ABA The 3A QTL appeared to be involved in the regulatory system of Wdhn13 and Wrab15 but not Wrab17 The effects of the 2A and 6D QTLs on gene expression were relatively large The combination of alleles at the QTLs resulted in an additive or synergistic effect on Cor/Lea expression These results indicate that the QTLs influencing ABA responsiveness are associated with ABAregulated gene expression and suggest that the QTL on chromosome 6D with the largest effect acts as a key regulator of ABA responses including seedling growth arrest and gene expression during the vegetative stageWe are grateful to Dr K Hori for the kind help with genetic mapping and QTL analysis We also thank Ms E Okano for her skillful technical assistance We wish to acknowledge Dr N Iriki for providing the wheat SSR marker information We are also grateful to Dr C Nakamura for providing seeds for the mapping population This work was supported by a GrantinAid for Research Fellowships from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science for Young Scientists to F K
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