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Session 1 – Evolution and Natural Variation
P1.1- Characterization of the diploid and tetraploid Brachypodium
distachyonpopulations in Israel
Assaf Distelfeld, Smadar Ezrati, Tamar Eilam, Hanan Sela, Raz Avni, and Adina Breiman
Dept. Molecular Biology and Ecology of Plants, The Institute for Cereal Crops
Improvement, Tel Aviv University, Israel.
adinaB@tauex.tau.ac.il
Abstract
Brachypodium distachyon that has emerged as a powerful model system to study the
unique aspects of the grasses is very abundant in Israel. It grows in diverse habitats from
the dry desert areas in the south to the relatively rainy Mediterranean areas in the north
and on different soil types. The Institute for Cereal Crops Improvement in Tel-Aviv
University holds a collection of crops wild relatives, including B. distachyon (BD) from
Israel. The BD collection includes accessions representing the diverse habitats. In a
preliminary study, to determine their ploidy level, 272 plants from the BD collection were
evaluated for their DNA content. Ninety three plants from 23 sites were found to have
similar DNA content as the diploid sequenced line BD21 while the rest had double
amount of DNA content and most likely are allopolyploids. The plants were grown under
controlled greenhouse conditions and showed considerable morphologic and
phenotypic variability in plant architecture, leaf size, leaf color, flowering time, spike
morphology and biomass. Our aim is to associate this phenotypic data with
transcriptomic changes among the diploid genotypes during the vegetative stage in
order to identify genes that control biomass production. The identification of novel genes
conferring increase biomass production will have a significant practical relevance. In
addition, we plan to genotype the collection with SSR markers to study the population
structure and gene flow.
Keywords
Brachypodium distachyon collection, phenotypic variation, biomass, diverse habitats.
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