Quality properties and expression profiling of protein disulfide isomerase genes during grain development of three spring wheat near isogenic lines

Three wheat glutenin near isogenic lines (NILs) CB037A, CB037B and CB037C were used to investigate their quality properties and the transcriptional expression profiles of PDI gene family during grain development. Our purpose is to understand the relationships between the dynamic expression of different PDI genes and glutenin allelic compositions related to gluten quality. The results showed that glutenin allelic variations had no significant effects on main agronomic traits and yield performance, but resulted in clear gluten quality changes. CB037B with 5+10 subunits had higher glutenin macropolymer (GMP) content and better breadmaking quality than CB037A with 2+12 while the lack of Glu-B3h encoding one abundant B-subunit in CB037C significantly reduced GMP content, dough strength and breadmaking quality. The dynamic expression patterns of eight protein disulfide isomerase (PDI) genes during grain development detected by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) showed the close correlations between higher expression levels of PDI3-1, PDI5-1 and PDI8-1 and the presence of 5+10 subunits. Meanwhile, Glu-B3h silence resulted in significant decrease of expression levels of five PDI genes (PDI3-1, PDI5-1, PDI6-1, PDI7-2 and PDI8-1), suggesting the vital roles of certain PDI genes in glutenin and GMP synthesis and gluten quality formation.