The Selection of Transgenic Recipients from New Elite Wheat Cultivars and Study on Its Plant Regeneration System

In the protocol of wheat transformation, to use elite wheat cultivars as exogenous gene recipients can speed up the process of commercial field applications of transgenic wheat. However, it is necessary to screen wheat cultivars with good tissue culture response （TCR） continuously from plenty of elite wheat cultivars released for wheat transformation, and it is also important to find a plant regeneration system that is suitable for these cultivars. So, the TCR of mature and immature embryos of six wheat cultivars Chuannong 11 （CN11）, Chuannong12 （CN12）, Chuannong17 （CN17）, Chuannong18 （CN18）, Chuannong19 （CN19）, and Chuannong21 （CN21）, which possess superior agronomic traits, were investigated by using a good TCR wheat cultivar Bobwhite as control. The results indicated that only the immature and mature embryos of CN12, CN17, and CN18 exhibited good TCR compared with Bobwhite. No significant differences were observed between embryos of Bobwhite and of the three cultivars in TCR. Mature embryo-derived calli of CN12 were used as explants for transformation by particle bombardment of SAMDC gene. Seven transformants were obtained and the efficiency was 2.3%. This research supplies three new elite recipient cultivars for wheat transformation. The wheat plant regeneration system used in this research is different from those successful ones reported previously and it could be a reference for other wheat genotypes. Furthermore, Bobwhite and the three wheat cultivars were proved to be 1RS/1BL translocation, by methods of A-PAGE, C- banding, and genomic in situ hybridization （GISH）. These results imply that probably there is some relationship between 1RS/1BL translocation and TCR of wheat embryos. So this research gives us a hint that we should pay more attention to the 1RS/1BL translocations when we screen the wheat cultivars with good TCR and also that the mechanism of the effect of 1RS/ 1BL translocation on TCR is worthy of being investigated.

The Potential Role of Powdery Mildew-Resistance Gene Pm40 in Chinese Wheat-Breeding Programs in the Post-Pro21 Era

Powdery mildew, which is caused by Blumeria graminis f. sp. tritici （Bgt）, is an important leaf disease that affects wheat yield. Powdery mildew-resistance （Pro） gene Pro21 was first transferred into wheat in the 1980s, by translocating the Heuchera villosa chromosome arm 6VS to the wheat chromosome arm 6AL （6VS.6AL）. Recently, new Bgt isolates that are virulent to Pm21 have been identified in some wheat fields, indicating that wheat breeders should be aware of the risk of deploying Pm21, although pathological details regarding these virulent isolates still remain to be discovered. Pm40 was identified and mapped on the wheat chromosome arm 7BS from several wheat lines developed from the progenies of a wild cross between wheat and Thinopyrum intermedium. Pm40 offers a broad spectrum of resistance to Bgt, which suggests that it is likely to provide potentially durable resistance. Cytological methods did not detect any large alien chromosomal segment in the wheat lines carrying Pm40. Lines with Pm40 and promising agronomical traits have been released by several wheat-breeding programs in the past several years. Therefore, we believe that Pm40 will play a role in powdery mildew-resistance wheat breeding after Pm21 resistance is overcome by Bgt isolates. In addition, both Prn21 and Pm40 were derived from alien species, suggesting that the resistance genes derived from alien species are potentially more durable or effective than those identified from wheat.

Alteration of Terminal Heterochromatin and Chromosome Rearrangements in Derivatives of Wheat-Rye Hybrids

Wheat-rye addition and substitution lines and their self progenies revealed variations in telomeric heterochromatin and centromeres, Furthermore, a mitotically unstable dicentric chromosome and stable multicentric chromosomes were observed in the progeny of a Chinese Spring-lmperial rye 3R addition line. An unstable multicentric chromosome was found in the progeny of a 6R/6D substitution line. Drastic variation of terminal heterochromatin including movement and disappearance of terminal heterochromatin occurred in the progeny of wheat- rye addition line 3R, and the 5RS ditelosomic addition line. Highly stable minichromosomes were observed in the progeny ofa monosomic 4R addition line, a ditelosomic 5RS addition line and a 6R/6D substitution line. Minichromosomes, with and without the FISH signals for telomeric DNA （TTTAGGG）n, derived from a monosomic 4R addition line are stable and transmissible to the next generation. The results indicated that centromeres and terminal heterochromatin can be profoundly altered in wheat-rye hybrid derivatives.

Identification and Physical Mapping of New PCR-Based Markers Specific for the Long Arm of Rye(Secale cereale L.) Chromosome 6

To effectively use elite genes on the long arm of rye chromosome 6（the 6RL arm） in wheat breeding programs,precise and fast identification of 6RL chromatin in wheat backgrounds is necessary.PCR-based 6RL-specific markers can facilitate the detection of elite genes on 6RL in wheat breeding.However,only a limited number of 6RL-specific markers have been developed.In the present study.300 new PCR-based 6RL-specific markers were identified using specific length amplified fragment sequencing（SLAF-seq） technology,and were further physically mapped to four regions on the 6RL arm using 6R and 6RL deletion lines.Interestingly,127 of the 300 markers were physically localized to a region from the site between 2.3 and 2.5 to the telomere,the same region where the powdery mildew resistance gene was mapped.In addition,95 of the 300 markers exhibit polymorphisms,which can be used to investigate the diversity of rye 6RL arms.The markers developed in this study can be used to identify given segments of 6RL in wheat backgrounds and accelerate the utilization of elite genes on 6RL in wheat breeding.

Structural and biochemical mechanism responsible for the stay-green phenotype in common wheat

In order to increase the supply of assimilated carbon to grain, a new stay-green wheat cultivar, Chuannong17 (CN17), with delayed leaf senescence, carrying wheat-rye 1RS.1BL translo- cated chromosome was developed. CN17 exhibited distinct differences in net photosynthetic rate (Pn), chlorophyll (Chl) content, malondialdehyde (MDA) content, activity of both superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT) during the grain filling stage, and flag leaf senescence compared with the control. The new cultivar maintained longer and higher photosyn- thetic competence compared with the control, and this aspect correlated with the difference in chloro-plast development. Moreover, the stay-green pheno-type of CN17 was also observed under natural growth conditions. Consequently, the coordination of the physiological, biochemical, and structural aspects in the stay-green cultivar produced higher seed weights and per-plant yield compared with the control cultivar.

Analysis of DNA methylation variation in wheat genetic background after alien chromatin introduction based on methylation-sensitive amplification polymorphism

During the process of alien germplasm introduced into wheat genome by chromosome engineering, extensive genetic variations of genome structure and gene expression in recipient could be induced. In this study, we performed GISH (genome in situ hybridization) and AFLP (amplified fragment length po-lymorphism) on wheat-rye chromosome translocation lines and their parents to detect the identity in genomic structure of different translocation lines. The results showed that the genome primary struc-ture variations were not obviously detected in different translocation lines except the same 1RS chromosome translocation. Methylation sensitive amplification polymorphism (MSAP) analyses on genomic DNA showed that the ratios of fully-methylated sites were significantly increased in translo-cation lines (CN12, 20.15%; CN17, 20.91%; CN18, 22.42%), but the ratios of hemimethylated sites were significantly lowered (CN12, 21.41%; CN17, 23.43%; CN18, 22.42%), whereas 16.37% were fully-me-thylated and 25.44% were hemimethylated in case of their wheat parent. Twenty-nine classes of me-thylation patterns were identified in a comparative assay of cytosine methylation patterns between wheat-rye translocation lines and their wheat parent, including 13 hypermethylation patterns (33.74%), 9 demethylation patterns (22.76%) and 7 uncertain patterns (4.07%). In further sequence analysis, the alterations of methylation pattern affected both repetitive DNA sequences, such as retrotransposons and tandem repetitive sequences, and low-copy DNA.