title: Allele-dependent barley grain beta-amylase activity.
abstract: The wild ancestor of cultivated barley, Hordeum vulgare subsp. spontaneum (K. Koch) A. & Gr. (H. spontaneum), is a source of wide genetic diversity, including traits that are important for malting quality. A high beta-amylase trait was previously identified in H. spontaneum strains from Israel, and transferred into the backcross progeny of a cross with the domesticated barley cv Adorra. We have used Southern-blot analysis and beta-amy1 gene characterization to demonstrate that the high beta-amylase trait in the backcross line is co-inherited with the beta-amy1 gene from the H. spontaneum parent. We have analyzed the beta-amy1 gene organization in various domesticated and wild-type barley strains and identified three distinct beta-amy1 alleles. Two of these beta-amy1 alleles were present in modern barley, one of which was specifically found in good malting barley cultivars. The third allele, linked with high grain beta-amylase activity, was found only in a H. spontaneum strain from the Judean foothills in Israel. The sequences of three isolated beta-amy1 alleles are compared. The involvement of specific intron III sequences, in particular a 126-bp palindromic insertion, in the allele-dependent expression of beta-amylase activity in barley grain is proposed.
authors.affiliation: Carlsberg Research Laboratory, Copenhagen, Denmark.
authors.forename: M J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Erkkilä
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Leah
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ahokas
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Cameron-Mills
mesh_terms: D000483:Alleles; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D001483:Base Sequence; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D003433:Crosses, Genetic; D005091:Exons; D017343:Genes, Plant; D008040:Genetic Linkage; D001467:Hordeum / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000235:genetics*; D007557:Israel; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016366:Open Reading Frames; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000379:methods; D011994:Recombinant Proteins / Q000096:biosynthesis / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D012689:Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid; D001614:beta-Amylase / Q000096:biosynthesis* / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D011994:Recombinant Proteins; D001614:beta-Amylase