Tritordeum: Promising Cultivars to Improve Health

Tritordeum is an amphiploides species resulting from the hybridization between durum wheat (T. durum) and wild barley (H. chilense). This new cereal is considered a natural crop as it is obtained by traditional breeding techniques. Given its appreciable organoleptic characteristics, agronomic features, presence of interesting components, and good technological properties, Tritordeum is of promising interest for the development of health-oriented foods. In this study, we evaluated two registered Tritordeum cultivars, Bulel and Aucan. T. durum (Provenzal) was employed as the positive control. The extracted proteins were digested by gastric/pancreatic proteases, and their biological effects on Caco-2 differentiated on transwell inserts were determined. Changes in cell viability, monolayer permeability, organization of F-actin microfilaments, and ER stress triggered by protein-digested samples (DPs) were inspected. Our results showed that exposure to Provenzal-DPs promptly disrupted the tight junction barrier. Conversely, Aucan-DPs did not enhance monolayer permeability, whereas Bulel-DPs exerted only slight effects. Provental-DPs-induced toxicity was also confirmed by changes in cell viability and by the deep reorganization of the enterocyte cytoskeleton. In contrast, Aucan-DPs and Bulel-DPs did not affect monolayer viability and cytoskeleton structure. Overall, our findings suggest that both Tritordeum cultivars could be potential candidates for mitigating the toxicity of wheat flour.

Effective isolation of retrotransposons and repetitive DNA families from the wheat genome

New classes of repetitive DNA elements were effectively identified by isolating small fragments of the elements from the wheat genome. A wheat A genome library was constructed from Triticum monococcum by degenerate cleavage with EcoO109I, the recognition sites of which consisted of 5'-PuGGNCCPy-3' multi-sequences. Three novel repetitive sequences pTm6, pTm69 and pTm58 derived from the A genome were screened and tested for high copy number using a blotting approach. pTm6 showed identity with integrase domains of the barley Ty1-Copia-retrotransposon BARE-1 and pTm58 showed similarity to the barley Ty3-gypsy-like retrotransposon Romani. pTm69, however, constituted a tandem array with useful genomic specificities, but did not share any identity with known repetitive elements. This study also sought to isolate wheat D-genome-specific repetitive elements regardless of the level of methylation, by genomic subtraction. Total genomic DNA of Aegilops tauschii was cleaved into short fragments with a methylation-insensitive 4 bp cutter, MboI, and then common DNA sequences between Ae. tauschii and Triticum turgidum were subtracted by annealing with excess T. turgidum genomic DNA. The D genome repetitive sequence pAt1 was isolated and used to identify an additional novel repetitive sequence family from wheat bacterial artificial chromosomes with a size range of 1 395-1 850 bp. The methods successfully led pathfinding of two unique repetitive families.

Morphological, yield, cytological and molecular characterization of a bread wheat X tritordeum F1 hybrid

The morphological, yield, cytological and molecular characteristics of bread wheat x tritordeum F(1) hybrids (2n = 6x = 42; AABBDH(ch)) and their parents were analysed. Morphologically, these hybrids resembled the wheat parent. They were slightly bigger than both parents, had more spikelets per spike, and tillered more profusely. The hybrids are self-fertile but a reduction of average values of yield parameters was observed. For the cytological approach we used a double-target fluorescence in situ hybridization performed with total genomic DNA from Hordeum chilense L. and the ribosomal sequence pTa71. This technique allowed us to confirm the hybrid nature and to analyse chromosome pairing in this material. Our results showed that the expected complete homologous pairing (14 bivalents plus 14 univalents) was only observed in 9.59% of the pollen mother cells (PMCs) analysed. Some PMCs presented autosyndetic pairing of H(ch) and A, B or D chromosomes. The average number of univalents was higher in the wheat genome (6.8) than in the H(ch) genome (5.4). The maximum number of univalents per PMC was 20. We only observed wheat multivalents (one per PMC) but the frequency of trivalents (0.08) was higher than that of quadrivalents (0.058). We amplified 50 RAPD bands polymorphic between the F(1) hybrid and one of its parents, and 31 ISSR polymorphic bands. Both sets of markers proved to be reliable for DNA fingerprinting. The complementary use of morphological and yield analysis, molecular cytogenetic techniques and molecular markers allowed a more accurate evaluation and characterization of the hybrids analysed here.

Identification of wheat and tritordeum chromosomes by genomic in situ hybridization using total Hordeum chilense DNA as probe

Total genomic Hordeum chilense DNA probe was hybridized to somatic chromosome spreads of Triticum aestivum 'Chinese Spring' and to four advanced tritordeum lines, the latter being the fertile amphiploid between H. chilense and durum wheat (2n = 6x = 42, AABBH(ch)H(ch)). The probe hybridized strongly to the B-genome chromosomes and to one or two bands on the A-genome chromosomes present in both wheat and tritordeum alloploids. Bands on chromosomes 1D, 2D, and 7D from hexaploid wheat were also detected. Genomic H. chilense DNA probe identified 16 chromosome pairs of the chromosome complement of hexaploid wheat and all A- and B-genome chromosomes present in the tritordeum amphiploids. The in situ hybridization patterns observed correspond to those previously reported in wheat by both N-banding and in situ hybridization with the GAA-satellite sequence (Pedersen and Langridge 1997), allowing the identification of these chromosomes. Variation among the tritordeum amphiploids for hybridization sites on chromosomes 2A, 4A, 6A, 7A, 4B, 5B, and 7B was observed. Despite of this polymorphism, all lines shared the general banding pattern. When used as probe, total H. chilense genomic DNA labeled the H. chilense chromosomes over their lengths allowing the identification of 14 H. chilense chromosomes present in the tritordeum amphiploids. In addition, chromosome-specific telomeric, interstial, and centromeric hybridization sites were observed. These hybridization sites coincide with N-banded regions in H. chilense allowing the identification of the individual H. chilense chromosomes in one of the amphiploid. The N-banded karyotypes of H. chilense (accessions H1 and H7) are presented.