Cereal Dehydrins: Serology, Gene Mapping and Potential Functional Roles

Abstract

Barley and maize seedlings exposed to a non-lethal dehydration treatment were previously shown to synthesise dehydration-induced protein (dehydrins). Antibodies against maize dehydrin react immunologically with polypeptides in dehydrating barley and wheat seedlings. Barley dehydrin cDNA hydridises to RNA present in dehydrating wheat, and other grass seedlings. These results indicate similarity of dehydrin epitopes, mRNA sequences, and gene regulation amongst dehydrins of several grasses, including wheat and barley. Two barley dehydrin genes were assigned to barley chromosome 6 (dhn3 and dhn4) and two to chromosome 7 (dhn1 and dhn2) using barley dehydrin cDNA clones and DNA from wheat-barley addition lines. Genes on the same chromosome have greater similarity in sequence than between chromosomes. Analysis of several different barley cultivars with one of the dehydrin cDNA clones revealed restriction fragment length polymorphism.