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ARS Home » Plains Area » Fargo, North Dakota » Edward T. Schafer Agricultural Research Center » Cereal Crops Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #207301
Title: The Role of Wheat Q Gene and its Signaling Pathways in Response to Abiotic Stress

Author
item Tai, Yin Shan

Submitted to: American Journal of Plant Physiology
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 3/26/2007
Publication Date: 7/7/2007
Citation: Tai, Y. 2007. The Role of Wheat Q Gene and its Signaling Pathways in Response to Abiotic Stress. American Journal of Plant Physiology. 2:295-302.

Interpretive Summary: After hundreds or thousands of years of agriculture, modern wheat has evolved in many respects. A number of morphological traits have been key in the evolution toward domestication. For decades, it has been known that a wheat gene known as the Q gene is involved in the regulation of plant height, flowering time, leaf morphology, and spike architecture. In this report, we found that the Q gene also plays a role in response to stress conditions, such as high salt. In order to understand the mechanism of Q gene-mediated regulation of genes involved in these traits, we identified five wheat proteins that can interact with the Q protein. The results of this study should help provide the basis for unraveling the signaling pathways in plants governed by the Q gene.

Technical Abstract: The Q gene of wheat is a member of the AP2 class of transcription factors and has been shown to influence numerous morphological and domestication-related characters including plant height, flowering time, leaf morphology, and spike architecture. Here, we show that a Q-disrupted mutant had delayed germination and growth compared to the wild type when grown under stress conditions, suggesting that the Q gene is also associated with tolerance to enviornmental stresses. To identify candidate genes involved with the transcriptional regulation networks of Q gene signaling pathways associated with environmental stresses, we used the yeast two-hybrid system to identify proteins that directly interact with the Q protein. Five potential Q interactors were identified and they include protein kinases, transcription factors, and a stress responsive protein. This work provides the basis for unraveling the signaling pathways and genetic netorwks governed by the Q gene.