Genes controlling plant growth habit in Leymus (Triticeae): maize barren stalk1 (ba1), rice lax panicle, and wheat tiller inhibition (tin3) genes as possible candidates.

Leymus cinereus and L. triticoides are large caespitose and rhizomatous perennial grasses, respectively. Previous studies detected quantitative trait loci (QTL) controlling rhizome spreading near the viviparous1 (vp1) gene markers on linkage groups LG3a and LG3b in two families, TTC1 and TTC2, derived from Leymus triticoides x Leymus cinereus hybrids. The wheat tiller inhibition gene (tin3) is located on Triticum monococcum chromosome 3 A(m)L near vp1. Triticeae group 3 is reportedly collinear with rice chromosome 1, which also contains the maize barren stalk1 and rice lax branching orthogene near vp1. However, previous studies lacked cross-species markers for comparative mapping and showed possible rearrangements of Leymus group 3 in wheat-Leymus racemosus chromosome addition lines. Here, we developed expressed sequence tag (EST) markers from Leymus tiller and rhizomes and mapped sequences aligned to rice chromosome 1. Thirty-eight of 44 informative markers detected loci on Leymus LG3a and LG3b that were collinear with homoeologous sequences on rice chromosome 1 and syntenous in homoeologous group 3 wheat-Leymus and wheat-Thinopyrum addition lines. A SCARECROW-like GRAS-family transcription factor candidate gene was identified in the Leymus EST library, which aligns to the Leymus chromosome group 3 growth habit QTL and a 324-kb rice chromosome 1 region thought to contain the wheat tin3 gene.