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ARS Home » Midwest Area » Columbia, Missouri » Plant Genetics Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #154800

Title: DEVELOPMENT OF PCR-BASED CO-DOMINANT MARKERS FLANKING THE ALT3 GENE IN RYE

Author
item MIFTAHUDIN - AGRONOMY-UNIV OF MO
item SCOLES, G - UNIV OF SASKATCHEWAN
item Gustafson, J

Submitted to: Genome
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 7/31/2003
Publication Date: 2/17/2004
Citation: Miftahudin, Scoles, G.J., Gustafson, J.P. 2004. Development of pcr-based co-dominant markers flanking the alt3 gene in rye. Genome. 47:231-238.

Interpretive Summary: Utilization of tolerant cultivars has long been considered as a more permanent solution to overcome the problem of aluminum (Al) toxicity, which occurs in acid soils. The development of such varieties in wheat has been very slow and no advances in tolerance have been made for the past 60 years. The present study was initiated to explore the potential for manipulating the Al tolerance gene(s) from rye, the most Al tolerant of all the cereals, into a wheat background. In an attempt to characterize and clone the Al tolerance gene from rye, we utilized a map-based-clone technique and the rye/rice syntenic relationship. Two markers, flanking the rye Alt3 gene, were developed from a rice BAC clone, which allowed us to create a high-resolution map of the Alt3 region. The result indicated that this region in rye is co-linear with a chromosomal region in rice. Thus, molecular biologists can make use of rice sequences to manipulate rye genes for potential wheat improvement.

Technical Abstract: Aluminum (Al) toxicity is considered to be a major problem for crop growth and production on acid soils. The ability of crops to overcome Al toxicity varies among crop species and cultivars. Rye (Secale cereale L.) is the most Al-tolerant species among the Triticeae. Our previous study showed that Al tolerance in a rye F6 RIL population was controlled by a single gene designated as the aluminum tolerance (Alt3) gene on chromosome 4RL. Based on the DNA sequence of a rice (Oryza sativa L.) BAC clone suspected to be syntenic to the Alt3 gene region, we developed two PCR-based co-dominant markers flanking the gene. These two markers, a sequence-tagged site (STS) marker and a cleaved amplified polymorphic sequence (CAPS) marker, each flanked the Alt3 gene at a distance of 0.4 cM and can be used to facilitate high-resolution mapping of the gene. The markers might also be used for marker-assisted selection in rye or wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) breeding programs to obtain Al-tolerant lines/cultivars.