The impact of single nucleotide polymorphism in monomeric alpha-amylase inhibitor genes from wild emmer wheat, primarily from Israel and Golan

Ji Rui Wang, Yu Ming Wei, Mei Deng, Eviatar Nevo, Ze Hong Yan, You Liang Zheng

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Background. Various enzyme inhibitors act on key insect gut digestive hydrolases, including alpha-amylases and proteinases. Alpha-amylase inhibitors have been widely investigated for their possible use in strengthening a plant's defense against insects that are highly dependent on starch as an energy source. We attempted to unravel the diversity of monomeric alpha-amylase inhibitor genes of Israeli and Golan Heights' wild emmer wheat with different ecological factors (e.g., geography, water, and temperature). Population methods that analyze the nature and frequency of allele diversity within a species and the codon analysis method (comparing patterns of synonymous and non-synonymous changes in protein coding sequences) were used to detect natural selection. Results. Three hundred and forty-eight sequences encoding monomeric alpha-amylase inhibitors (WMAI) were obtained from 14 populations of wild emmer wheat. The frequency of SNPs in WMAI genes was 1 out of 16.3 bases, where 28 SNPs were detected in the coding sequence. The results of purifying and the positive selection hypothesis (p < 0.05) showed that the sequences of WMAI were contributed by both natural selection and co-evolution, which ensured conservation of protein function and inhibition against diverse insect amylases. The majority of amino acid substitutions occurred at the C-terminal (positive selection domain), which ensured the stability of WMAI. SNPs in this gene could be classified into several categories associated with water, temperature, and geographic factors, respectively. Conclusions. Great diversity at the WMAI locus, both between and within populations, was detected in the populations of wild emmer wheat. It was revealed that WMAI were naturally selected for across populations by a ratio of dN/dS as expected. Ecological factors, singly or in combination, explained a significant proportion of the variations in the SNPs. A sharp genetic divergence over very short geographic distances compared to a small genetic divergence between large geographic distances also suggested that the SNPs were subjected to natural selection, and ecological factors had an important evolutionary role in polymorphisms at this locus. According to population and codon analysis, these results suggested that monomeric alpha-amylase inhibitors are adaptively selected under different environmental conditions.

Original languageEnglish
Article number170
JournalBMC Evolutionary Biology
Volume10
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - 2010

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
We express our gratitude to Robin Permut (Institute of Evolution, University of Haifa, Israel) for editorial assistance. This work was supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program 2009CB118300) and the National High Technology Research and the Development Program of China (863 program 2006AA10Z179 and 2006AA10Z1F8). E.N. was supported by the Ancell Teicher Research Foundation of Genetics and Molecular Evolution. J.R.W. was supported by the Youth Scientist Program of Sichuan China (09ZQ026-027).

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics

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