Congruity of the Polymorphisms in the Expressed and Noncoding Parts of the Gli-B1 Locus in Common Wheat

The previously defined pairs of primers GliB1.1 and GliB1.2 were found to produce three and four principal variants, respectively, of PCR sequence length for the &gamma
gliadin pseudogene in 46 Triticum aestivum L. cultivars from 15 countries carrying 19 known alleles at the Gli-B1 locus. A congruity was established between this polymorphism, allelic sets of the Gli-B1-produced gliadins (especially of the electrophoretic mobility in acid gels of the encoded &gamma
gliadin) and the presence in the wheat genotype of the Gli-B5b + Rg-1 allelic combination. Six different alleles at the Gli-B1 locus encoding an identical &gamma
gliadin produced a PCR sequence of about 400 bp (GliB1.1). Nine Gli-B1d-carrying genotypes from four countries produced an identical sequence of about 409 bp (GliB1.2), while three cultivars with Gli-B1h and four with Gli-B1b produced three and two specific sequences, respectively, of slightly different length. Allele Gli-B1j might be the result of recombination between coding and noncoding DNA sequences within the Gli-B1 locus. These observations imply that genetic diversity of the agriculturally important region of chromosome 1B marked by variants of the Gli-B1 locus is rather limited among common wheat cultivars of the 20th century, specifically to eight principal versions. These might have been incorporated into common wheat from diverged genotypes of diploid donor(s), and, due to the scarcity of recombination, subsequently maintained relatively intact. As well as its evolutionary significance, this information is of potential use in wheat breeding and we consider it likely that novel variants of this region will be found in hitherto unstudied germplasm.