Development of PCR-based DNA marker for identifying wheat high-molecular-weight glutenin subunits "5+10" and its applications to breeding of bread-making cultivars for the Tohoku region
Recently, demand for domestic bread-making wheat cultivars is increasing throughout Japan, including the Tohoku area. The goal of this study was to design DNA markers to help our Breeding Department develop new wheat cultivars with high-molecular-weight glutenin (HMWG) subunits responsible for high bread-making quality. HMWG subunits of storage proteins are highly related to bread-making quality. There are three Glu-1 loci, Glu-A1, Glu-B1, and Glu-D1, and several alleles from each locus have been characterized. Since the Glu-D1d allele responsible for producing the HMWG subunits "5+10" has the greatest positive effect on bread-making properties, a co-dominant DNA marker to be used for an effective identification of this allele was developed. By applying the marker to determine the presence or absence of the Glu-D1d allele in bread-making cultivars recently released from our institution, we showed that our PCR-based marker is more effective and accurate than the established SDS-PAGE method for HMWG subunit detection. In addition, the marker analysis revealed that the Glu-D1d allele was missing from the cultivar "Yukichikara", though this cultivar has been reported to carry the allele.