Description:
<div class="page" title="Page 1"><div class="layoutArea"><div class="column"><p><span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";">One of the most common features of plant species belonging to the Gramineae family is to develop normal (unbranched) spikes. However, this unusual spike morphology places </span><span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: "Times New Roman,Italic";">Triticum turgidum </span><span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";">var. </span><span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: "Times New Roman,Italic";">mirabile </span><span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";">into a very special position among all the species of Gramineae. </span><span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: "Times New Roman,Italic";">T. turgidum </span><span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";">var. </span><span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: "Times New Roman,Italic";">mirabile </span><span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";">is known a</span><span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";">s ‘m</span><span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";">iracle-</span><span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";">wheat’ </span><span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";">with branched heads. In this study, the full length nucleotide sequences of the three genes </span><span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: "Times New Roman,Italic";">APETALA 1 </span><span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";">(</span><span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: "Times New Roman,Italic";">AP1</span><span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";">), </span><span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: "Times New Roman,Italic";">APETALA 3 </span><span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";">(</span><span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: "Times New Roman,Italic";">AP3</span><span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";">), </span><span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: "Times New Roman,Italic";">PISTILLATA </span><span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";">(</span><span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: "Times New Roman,Italic";">PI</span><span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";">) which are responsible for the formation of the floral meristem identity genes were isolated and characterized. In this context, the partial cDNA fragments obtained by PCR with degenerate primers were analyzed via 3' and 5' rapid amplification of cDNA ends (RACE) analysis to obtain full length genes called </span><span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: "Times New Roman,Italic";">TmAP1</span><span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";">, </span><span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: "Times New Roman,Italic";">TmAP3 </span><span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";">and </span><span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: "Times New Roman,Italic";">TmPI</span><span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";">. After cloning and sequencing </span><span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: "Times New Roman,Italic";">TmAP1</span><span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";">, </span><span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: "Times New Roman,Italic";">TmAP3 </span><span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";">and </span><span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: "Times New Roman,Italic";">TmPI </span><span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";">genes were found to consist of 1256, 1223 and 1031 nucleotides, respectively. The open reading frames (ORFs) of </span><span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: "Times New Roman,Italic";">TmAP1</span><span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";">, </span><span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: "Times New Roman,Italic";">TmAP3 </span><span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";">and </span><span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: "Times New Roman,Italic";">TmPI </span><span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";">encode predicted proteins of 323, 276 and 252 amino acids with a length of 975, 831 and 759 nucleotides, respectively. The predicted proteins of all three genes contained the MADS domain, while the other regions were more variable and less conserved. In comparison to the protein homologs determined for other plants such as </span><span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: "Times New Roman,Italic";">Arabidopsis</span><span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";">, the deduced TmAP3 and TmPI proteins did not have the conserved euAP3 and PI motifs. Southern blot analyse showed that </span><span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: "Times New Roman,Italic";">TmAP1 </span><span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";">and </span><span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: "Times New Roman,Italic";">TmPI </span><span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";">genes had single copies and </span><span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: "Times New Roman,Italic";">TmAP3 </span><span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";">gene had 2 copies in the </span><span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: "Times New Roman,Italic";">T. turgidum </span><span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";">var. </span><span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: "Times New Roman,Italic";">mirabile </span><span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";">genome.</span></p></div></div></div>