Genetic and cytogenetic analyses of the A genome of Triticum monococcum. VIII. Localization of rDNAs and characterization of 5S rRNA genes.

In situ hybridization with [3H]dCTP labelled pScT7 (5S rDNA) and pTa80 (18S + 26S rDNA) indicated that both hybridized to the terminal regions of two pairs of chromosomes in Triticum monococcum. When the hybridization was performed with a mixture of both probes, only two pairs of chromosome arms were labelled, which suggested that the loci of both genes were located in juxtaposition to one another. Both probes labelled one pair of sites more heavily than the other. Southern analysis of 5S with BamHI-digested DNA from 12 accessions of T. monococcum (including T. urartu) produced two superimposed ladders of approximate sizes of 500 and 330 bp, which differ from T. aestivum in which 500- and 420-bp ladders were found. The 500-bp ladder is derived from chromosome 5A (5SDna-A2) and the 330-bp ladder from chromosome 1A (5SDna-A1). The recognition site for SstI was present in the long spacer region but absent in the short spacer as in T. aestivum; however, unlike T. aestivum, there were HaeIII (GGCC) and HindIII (AAGCTT) recognition sites in the short spacer region. The TaqI recognition sites (TCGA) in the long and short spacer regions are probably more highly methylated in T. monococcum than in T. aestivum. The results have implications regarding the evolutionary changes that occurred in the A genome of the hexaploid compared with the diploid.