Abstract

In the present study, a HMW-GS allele Glu1-St1.5 was isolated and characterized from Elymus sibiricus. Nucleotide sequence analysis indicated that the St1.5 shared the highest similarity with St1.3 from Elymus canadensis, but the “TA” insertion mutation at 15 to 16 bp in signal peptide sequence made it an inactive gene, because three premature stop codons were generated by “TA” insertion in signal peptide region, N-terminal region and C-terminal region, respectively. To identify the type of St1.5, the inserted “TA” was eliminated factitiously and the deduced amino acid sequence was analyzed, the result showed that St1.5 was a y-type HMW-GS pseudo gene. Phylogenetic tree demonstrated that St1.5 had the closest relationship to the St1 allele ofPseudoroegneria stipifolia, which indicated that St1.5 was a novel gene of St Genome. These results provide insights into the evolutionary biology of Glu1-St1.5 and other HMW-GS genes.

Key words: Glu1-1St1.5, HMW-GS, Elymus sibiricus.