Wheat-rye translocation lines are widely used in wheat breeding programmes by reason of biotic stress tolerances. Though there have been a number of researches regarding abiotic stress tolerance, the tolerance of the lines depends on wheat genetic background, not on rye chromosome. Here, we investigated wheat-rye translocation specific transcripts derived from cDNA-AFLP under drought stress, which may help to elucidate the reaction under the stress. ‘OK91G117’ (1BL.1RS translocation) and ‘OK91G144’ (non-translocation) were used as materials, which are near-isolines for 1RS. 25% PEG 6000 was added in culture solution to simulate drought condition and root tissues were sampled at each 0 h, 3 h, 6 h, 12 h, 24 h, and 48 h after PEG treatment for RNA extraction. As a result of cDNA-AFLP, TDFs (transcript derived fragments) that were specific to OK91G117 were sequenced. GO functions of each sequenced TDF were annotated by Blast2GO using standard parameter with cut-off level 3 and mapped to the GO term (i.e. biological process; BP, molecular function; MF, cellular component; CC). The term with “organic substance metabolic process”, “primary metabolic process”, and “cellular metabolic process” account for almost 50 % of BP. The most represented terms among probes classified to MF were “transferase activity” and most of TDF were annotated in “cell part” of CC. In addition, rye-chromatin specific markers were developed by BLAST comparing sequence of TDF with wheat and rye genome data. RT-PCR was conducted to validate expression patterns of selected TDF. Further studies will be needed to elucidate functions of the highly expressed genes under drought stress.

Soil salinity limits crop productivity in many regions. This problem would be more serious as the global climate changes and worldwide water shortages would accelerate soil salinization. This study is fulfilled with aim on resolve crop cultivation in dry/saline land as an international joint research project with Tunisia. Total 48 lines of wheat cultivars including 32 common wheat (16 Korean wheat, 16 Tunisian common wheat) and 16 Tunisian durum wheat were incorporated in this study. Salt stress was applied for 2 weeks by submerging the pots into 500 mM NaCl at 3-leaf stage followed by re-watering for restoration in greenhouse. Numerous agronomic/growth parameters were scored for tolerence. SSR primers that have been known to be related to salt tolerance were applied to explain selected population. The correlation between PCR-based length polymorphism of selected lines and their resistance were evaluated. The obtained information will aid selection for salt tolerance hexa/tetraploid wheats. Acknowledgement: This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korea government (MEST) (No. 2012K1A3A1A09028123) and carried out with the support of “Cooperative Research Program for Agriculture Science & Technology Development (Project title: Development of high yielding wheat with stress tolerance via molecular breeding strategies, Project No. PJ008031)”, Rural Development Administration, Republic of Korea.

Brachypodium has been focused as new model plant for grass species. Like small size, small room requirement, and fast growth, Brachypodium shows numerous advantages as a model plant. Brachypodium is a typical grass at the genome level, which also exhibits an overall similarity of gene content and gene families when compared with rice (Oryza sativa) and sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) genomes. Brachypodium is an excellent material for structural and functional genomic studies in grass species. Targeting-Induced Local Lesions IN Genomes (TILLING) is a high-throughput technique and an approach for reverse genetics study. Moreover, it has been wildly utilized to find induced mutation. Bradi3g45515 is orthologue of the cellulose synthase-like HvCslF8 in barley. For TILLING library construction, 384 M2 Brachypodium mutants induced by chronic-gamma irradiation were used. Single nucleotide polymorphysm (SNP) and small deletion in Bradi3g45515 were searched through TILLING analysis. Template DNA for PCR reaction were prepared according to two dimensional pooling (eightfold) strategy. Heteroduplex DNA was digested by SURVEYOR nuclease (TRANSGENOMIC) and the DNA fragment was detected using polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. Positive signal appeared at polyacrylamide gel from more than 4 lines and their Bradi3g45515 region were sequenced. SNP(s) were identified in 509-2 and 677-3 mutant line. Cellulose content and/or cell wall materials content will be measured using these mutants.