Rice-barley synteny and its application to saturation mapping of the barley Rpg1 region.

In order to facilitate the map-based cloning of the barley stem rust resistance gene Rpg1, we have demonstrated a high degree of synteny at a micro level between the telomeric region of barley chromosome 1P and rice chromosome 6. We have also developed and applied a simple and efficient method for selecting useful probes from large insert genomic YAC and cosmid clones. The gene order within the most terminal 6.5 cM of barley chromosome 1P was compared with the most terminal 2.7 cM of rice chromosome 6. Nine rice probes, previously mapped in rice or isolated from YAC or cosmid clones from this region, were mapped in barley. All, except one, were in synteny with the rice gene order. The exception, probe Y617R, was duplicated in barley. One copy was located on a different chromosome and the other in a non-syntenic position on barley chromosome 1P. The barley probes from this region could not be mapped to rice, but two of them were inferred to be in a syntenic location based on their position on a rice YAC. This work demonstrates the utility of applying the results of genetic and physical mapping of the small genome cereal rice to map-based cloning of interesting genes from large genome relatives.     

Further evidence of microcolinearity between barley and rice genomes at two orthologous regions

Two genetic markers, BCD135 and RZ567 were used to select clones from genomic BAC libraries of barley and rice for sequencing and subsequent sequence comparisons. A set of two orthologous BACs each from barley and rice was selected by hybridization with BCD135 and RZ567 cDNA probes. A total of 556-kb stretch including two barley BACs (773K135 and 745C13) and two orthologous rice BACs (24K23 and 49D11) was completely sequenced. Comparative sequence analysis between orthologous BACs from the two species revealed presence of two conserved genes at BCD135 region and only one gene at the RZ567 regions. The two conserved genes were in the same order and orientation in both the species however, separated by significantly larger distance in barley. The larger distance between two barley genes was mainly due to presence of different retrotransposable elements and their derivatives (78.9% of the intergenic region) that expanded the barley BCD135 region at the rate of 9.1X. An additional gene of unknown function was also inserted along with several retrotransposable elements between two conserved genes at barley BCD135 region. More genome expansion rate (10X) around barley RZ567 locus was estimated by extremely high proportion (> 70%) of retrotransposons. Among different retrotransposons, the Sabrina elements rather than BARE were more prevalent in both the regions. Contrary to it, the BCD135 region of rice was composed of only 17.1% retrotransposable elements and no significant retrotransposons except 14 miniature inverted transposable elements (MITEs) were observed in its RZ567 region. The sequence comparison between orthologous regions of rice and barley genomes was useful for gene identification and determination of individual gene structure indicating the possibility of effective utilization of rice genome sequences in understanding the large genome of barley. (The sequence data described in this paper have been submitted to the GenBank data library under the accession no. AF474072 (773K14), AF474071 (745C13), AF480497 (24K23) and AF480496 (49D11)).     

Comparative DNA sequence analysis of mapped wheat ESTs reveals the complexity of genome relationships between rice and wheat

The use of DNA sequence-based comparative genomics for evolutionary studies and for transferring information from model species to related large-genome species has revolutionized molecular genetics and breeding strategies for improving those crops. Comparative sequence analysis methods can be used to cross-reference genes between species maps, enhance the resolution of comparative maps, study patterns of gene evolution, identify conserved regions of the genomes, and facilitate interspecies gene cloning. In this study, 5,780 Triticeae ESTs that have been physically mapped using wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) deletion lines and segregating populations were compared using NCBI BLASTN to the first draft of the public rice (Oryza sativa L.) genome sequence data from 3,280 ordered BAC/PAC clones. A rice genome view of the homoeologous wheat genome locations based on sequence analysis shows general similarity to the previously published comparative maps based on Southern analysis of RFLP. For most rice chromosomes there is a preponderance of wheat genes from one or two wheat chromosomes. The physical locations of non-conserved regions were not consistent across rice chromosomes. Some wheat ESTs with multiple wheat genome locations are associated with the non-conserved regions of similarity between rice and wheat. The inverse view, showing the relationship between the wheat deletion map and rice genomic sequence, revealed the breakdown of gene content and order at the resolution conferred by the physical chromosome deletions in the wheat genome. An average of 35% of the putative single copy genes that were mapped to the most conserved bins matched rice chromosomes other than the one that was most similar. This suggests that there has been an abundance of rearrangements, insertions, deletions, and duplications eroding the wheat-rice genome relationship that may complicate the use of rice as a model for cross-species transfer of information in non-conserved regions.     

Molecular evolution of receptor-like kinase genes in hexaploid wheat. Independent evolution of orthologs after polyploidization and mechanisms of local rearrangements at paralogous loci

Hexaploid wheat is a young polyploid species and represents a good model to study mechanisms of gene evolution after polyploidization. Recent studies at the scale of the whole genome have suggested rapid genomic changes after polyploidization but so far the rearrangements that have occurred in terms of gene content and organization have not been analyzed at the microlevel in wheat. Here, we have isolated members of a receptor kinase (Lrk) gene family in hexaploid and diploid wheat, Aegilops tauschii, and barley (Hordeum vulgare). Phylogenetic analysis has allowed us to establish evolutionary relationships (orthology versus paralogy) between the different members of this gene family in wheat as well as with Lrk genes from barley. It also demonstrated that the sequences of the homoeologous Lrk genes evolved independently after polyploidization. In addition, we found evidence for gene loss during the evolution of wheat and barley. Analysis of large genomic fragments isolated from nonorthologous Lrk loci showed a high conservation of the gene content and gene organization at these loci on the homoeologous group 1 chromosomes of wheat and barley. Finally, sequence comparison of two paralogous fragments of chromosome 1B showed a large number of local events (sequence duplications, deletions, and insertions), which reveal rearrangements and mechanisms for genome enlargement at the microlevel.     

Barley disease resistance gene analogs of the NBS-LRR class: identification and mapping

The majority of verified plant disease resistance genes isolated to date are of the NBS-LRR class, encoding proteins with a predicted nucleotide binding site (NBS) and a leucine-rich repeat (LRR) region. We took advantage of the sequence conservation in the NBS motif to clone, by PCR, gene fragments from barley representing putative disease resistance genes of this class. Over 30 different resistance gene analogs (RGAs) were isolated from the barley cultivar Regatta. These were grouped into 13 classes based on DNA sequence similarity. Actively transcribed genes were identified from all classes but one, and cDNA clones were isolated to derive the complete NBS-LRR protein sequences. Some of the NBS-LRR genes exhibited variation with respect to whether and where particular introns were spliced, as well as frequent premature polyadenylation. DNA sequences related to the majority of the barley RGAs were identified in the recently expanded public rice genomic sequence database, indicating that the rice sequence can be used to extract a large proportion of the RGAs from barley and other cereals. Using a combination of RFLP and PCR marker techniques, representatives of all barley RGA gene classes were mapped in the barley genome, to all chromosomes except 4H. A number of the RGA loci map in the vicinity of known disease resistance loci, and the association between RGA S-120 and the nematode resistance locus Ha2 on chromosome 2H was further tested by co-segregation analysis. Most of the RGA sequences reported here have not been described previously, and represent a useful resource as candidates or molecular markers for disease resistance genes in barley and other cereals.     

High-resolution mapping of the barley leaf rust resistance gene Rph5 using barley expressed sequence tags (ESTs) and synteny with rice

The rapidly growing expressed sequence tag (EST) resources of species representing the Poacea family and availability of comprehensive sequence information for the rice (Oryza sativa) genome create an excellent opportunity for comparative genome analysis. Extensive synteny between rice chromosome 1 and barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) chromosome 3 has proven extremely useful for saturation mapping of chromosomal regions containing target genes of large-genome barley with conserved orthologous genes from the syntenic regions of the rice genome. Rph5 is a gene conferring resistance to the barley leaf rust pathogen Puccinia hordei. It was mapped to chromosome 3HS, which is syntenic with rice chromosome 1S. The objective of this study was to increase marker density within the sub-centimorgan region around Rph5, using sequence-tagged site (STS) markers that were developed based on barley ESTs syntenic to the phage (P1)-derived artificial chromosome (PAC) clones comprising the distal region of rice chromosome 1S. Five rice PAC clones were used as queries in a blastn search to screen 375,187 barley ESTs. Ninety-four non-redundant EST sequences were identified from the EST database and used as templates to design 174 pairs of primer combinations. As a result, 9 barley EST-based STS markers were incorporated into the ‘Bowman’ × ‘Magnif 102’ high-resolution map of the Rph5 region. More importantly, six markers, including five EST-derived STS sequences, were found to co-segregate with Rph5. The results of this study demonstrate the usefulness of rice genomic resources for efficient deployment of barley ESTs for marker saturation of targeted barley genomic regions.     

Dissecting the telomere region of barley chromosome 5HL using rice genomic sequences as references: new markers for tracking a complex region in breeding

The terminal region of barley chromosome 5HL controls malt extract, diastatic power, free amino acid nitrogen, alpha-amylase activity, seed dormancy and pre-harvest sprouting. Comparative analysis of the barley and rice maps has established that the terminal region of barley chromosome 5HL is syntenic to rice chromosome 3L near the telomere end. The rice BAC (Bacterial Artificial Chromosome) sequences covering the region of chromosome 3L were used to search barley expressed sequenced tags database. Thirty-three genes were amplified by PCR (polymerase chain reaction) with the primers designed from barley ESTs (expressed sequence tag). Comparison of the sequences of the PCR generated DNA fragments revealed polymorphisms including single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP), insertions or deletions between the barley varieties. Seven new PCR based molecular markers were developed and mapped within 10 cM in three doubled haploid barley populations (Stirling × Harrington, Baudin × AC Metcalfe and Chebec × Harrington). The mapped genes maintain the micro-syntenic relationship between barley and rice. These gene specific markers provide simple and efficient tools for germplasm characterization and marker-assisted selection for barley malting quality, and ultimately lead to isolation and identification of the major gene(s) controlling multiple quality traits on barley chromosome 5HL.     

Dynamics of the evolution of orthologous and paralogous portions of a complex locus region in two genomes of allopolyploid wheat

Two overlapping bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) clones from the B genome of the tetraploid wheat Triticum turgidum were identified, each of which contains one of the two high-molecular-weight (HMW) glutenin genes, comprising the complex Glu-B1 locus. The complete sequence (285 506 bp of DNA) of this chromosomal region was determined. The two paralogous x-type ( Glu-1-1 ) and y-type ( Glu-1-2 ) HMW-glutenin genes of the complex Glu-B1 locus were found to be separated by ca. 168 000 bp instead of the 51 000 bp separation previously reported for the orthologous Glu-D1 locus of Aegilops tauschii, the D-genome donor of hexaploid wheat. This difference in intergene spacing is due almost entirely to be the insertion of clusters of nested retrotransposons. Otherwise, the orientation and order of the HMW glutenins and adjacent genes were identical in the two genomes. A comparison of these orthologous regions indicates modes and patterns of sequence divergence, with implications for the overall Triticeae genome structure and evolution. A duplicate globulin gene, found 5' of each HMW-glutenin gene, assists to tentatively define the original duplication event leading to the paralogous x- and y-type HMW-glutenin genes. The intergenic regions of the two loci are composed of different patterns and classes of retrotransposons, indicating that insertion times of these retroelements were after the divergence of the two wheat genomes. In addition, a putative receptor kinase gene near the y-type HMW-glutenin gene at the Glu-B1 locus is likely active as it matches recently reported ESTs from germinating barley endosperm. The presence of four genes represented only in the Triticeae endosperm ESTs suggests an endosperm-specific chromosome domain.     

Conserved noncoding sequences among cultivated cereal genomes identify candidate regulatory sequence elements and patterns of promoter evolution

Surveys for conserved noncoding sequences (CNS) among genes from monocot cereal species were conducted to assess the general properties of CNS in grass genomes and their correlation with known promoter regulatory elements. Initial comparisons of 11 orthologous maize-rice gene pairs found that previously defined regulatory motifs could be identified within short CNS but could not be distinguished reliably from random sequence matches. Among the different phylogenetic footprinting algorithms tested, the VISTA tool yielded the most informative alignments of noncoding sequence. VISTA was used to survey for CNS among all publicly available genomic sequences from maize, rice, wheat, barley, and sorghum, representing >300 gene comparisons. Comparisons of orthologous maize-rice and maize-sorghum gene pairs identified 20 bp as a minimal length criterion for a significant CNS among grass genes, with few such CNS found to be conserved across rice, maize, sorghum, and barley. The frequency and length of cereal CNS as well as nucleotide substitution rates within CNS were consistent with the known phylogenetic distances among the species compared. The implications of these findings for the evolution of cereal gene promoter sequences and the utility of using the nearly completed rice genome sequence to predict candidate regulatory elements in other cereal genes by phylogenetic footprinting are discussed.     

Allele-mining of rice blast resistance genes at AC134922 locus

The AC134922 locus is one of the most rapidly evolving nucleotide binding site-leucine-rich repeat (NBS-LRR) gene family in rice genome. Six rice blast resistance (R) genes have been cloned from this locus and other two resistance candidate genes, Pi34 and Pi47, are also mapped to this complex locus. Therefore, it seems that more functional R genes could be identified from this locus. In this study, we cloned 22 genes from 12 cultivars based on allele-mining strategy at this locus and identified 6 rice blast R genes with 4 of them recognizing more than one isolates. Our result suggests that gene stacking might be the evolutionary strategy for complex gene locus to interact with rapidly evolving pathogens, which might provide a potential way for the cloning of durable resistance genes. Moreover, the mosaic structure and ambiguous ortholog/paralog relationships of these homologous genes, caused by frequent recombination and gene conversion, indicate that multiple alleles of this complex locus may serve as a reservoir for the evolutionary novelty of these R genes.     

The gibberellic-acid insensitive dwarfing gene<Emphasis Type="Italic"> sdw3</Emphasis> of barley is located on chromosome 2HS in a region that shows high colinearity with rice chromosome 7L

In this study, comparative high resolution genetic mapping of the GA-insensitive dwarfing gene sdw3 of barley revealed highly conserved macrosynteny of the target region on barley chromosome 2HS with rice chromosome 7L. A rice contig covering the sdw3-orthologous region was identified and subsequently exploited for marker saturation of the target interval in barley. This was achieved by (1) mapping of rice markers from the orthologous region of the rice genetic map, (2) mapping of rice ESTs that had been physically localized on the rice contig, or (3) mapping of barley ESTs that show strong sequence similarity to coding sequences present in the rice contig. Finally, the sdw3 gene was mapped to an interval of 0.55 cM in barley, corresponding to a physical distance of about 252 kb in rice, after employing orthologous EST-derived rice markers. Three putative ORFs were identified in this interval in rice, which exhibited significant sequence similarity to known signal regulator genes from different species. These ORFs can serve as starting points for the map-based isolation of the sdw3 gene from barley.Communicated by R. Hagemann     

Comparative genomics in the grass family: molecular characterization of grass genome structure and evolution

The genomes of grasses are very different in terms of size, ploidy level and chromosome number. Despite these significant differences, it was found by comparative mapping that the linear order (colinearity) of genetic markers and genes is very well conserved between different grass genomes. The potential of such conservation has been exploited in several directions, e.g. in defining rice as a model genome for grasses and in designing better strategies for positional cloning in large genomes. Recently, the development of large insert libraries in species such as maize, rice, barley and diploid wheat has allowed the study of large stretches of DNA sequence and has provided insight into gene organization in grasses. It was found that genes are not distributed randomly along the chromosomes and that there are clusters of high gene density in species with large genomes. Comparative analysis performed at the DNA sequence level has demonstrated that colinearity between the grass genomes is retained at the molecular level (microcolinearity) in most cases. However, detailed analysis has also revealed a number of exceptions to microcolinearity, which have given insight into mechanisms that are involved in grass-genome evolution. In some cases, the use of rice as a model to support gene isolation from other grass genomes will be complicated by local rearrangements. In this Botanical Briefing, we present recent progress and future prospects of comparative genomics in grasses.     

Comparative mapping of the barley Ppd-H1 photoperiod response gene region,which lies close to a junction between two rice linkage segments

Comparative mapping of cereals has shown that chromosomes of barley, wheat, and maize can be described in terms of rice "linkage segments." However, little is known about marker order in the junctions between linkage blocks or whether this will impair comparative analysis of major genes that lie in such regions. We used genetic and physical mapping to investigate the relationship between the distal part of rice chromosome 7L, which contains the Hd2 heading date gene, and the region of barley chromosome 2HS containing the Ppd-H1 photoperiod response gene, which lies near the junction between rice 7 and rice 4 linkage segments. RFLP markers were mapped in maize to identify regions that might contain Hd2 or Ppd-H1 orthologs. Rice provided useful markers for the Ppd-H1 region but comparative mapping was complicated by loss of colinearity and sequence duplications that predated the divergence of rice, maize, and barley. The sequences of cDNA markers were used to search for homologs in the Arabidopsis genome. Homologous sequences were found for 13 out of 16 markers but they were dispersed in Arabidopsis and did not identify any candidate equivalent region. The implications of the results for comparative trait mapping in junction regions are discussed.     

Characterization of the genome expression trends in the heading-stage panicle of six rice lineages

To study how changes in gene regulation shape phenotypic variations in rice, we performed a comparative analysis of genome expression in the heading-stage panicle from six lineages of cultivated and wild rice, including Oryza sativa subsp. indica, japonica and javanica, O. nivara , O. rufipogon and O. glaberrima. While nearly three-quarters of the genes are expressed at a constant level in all six lineages, a large portion of the genome, ranging from 1767 to 4489 genes, exhibited differential expression between Asian domesticated and wild rice with repression or down-regulation of genome expression in Asian cultivated rice as the dominant trend. Importantly, we found this repression was achieved to a large extent by the differential expression of a single member of paralogous gene families. Functional analysis of the differentially expressed genes revealed that genes related to catabolism are repressed while genes related to anabolism up-regulated. Finally, we observed that distinct evolutionary forces may have acted on gene expression and the coding sequences in the examined rice lineages.