AetMYC1, the Candidate Gene Controlling the Red Coleoptile Trait in Aegilops tauschii Coss. Accession As77

The red coleoptile trait can help monocotyledonous plants withstand stresses, and key genes responsible for the trait have been isolated from Triticum aestivum, Triticum urartu, and Triticum monococcum, but no corresponding research has been reported for Aegilops tauschii. In this research, transcriptome analysis was performed to isolate the candidate gene controlling the white coleoptile trait in Ae. tauschii. There were 5348 upregulated, differentially-expressed genes (DEGs) and 4761 downregulated DEGs in red coleoptile vs. white coleoptile plants. Among these DEGs, 12 structural genes and two transcription factors involved in anthocyanin biosynthesis were identified. The majority of structural genes showed lower transcript abundance in the white coleoptile of accession ‘As77’ than in the red coleoptile of accession ‘As60’, which implied that transcription factors related to anthocyanin biosynthesis could be the candidate genes. The MYB and MYC transcription factors AetMYB7D and AetMYC1 were both isolated from Ae. tauschii accessions ‘As60’ and ‘As77’, and their transcript levels analyzed. The coding sequence and transcript level of AetMYB7D showed no difference between ‘As60’ and ‘As77’. AetMYC1p encoded a 567-amino acid polypeptide in ‘As60’ containing the entire characteristic domains, bHLH-MYC_N, HLH, and ACT-like, belonging to the gene family involved in regulating anthocyanin biosynthesis. AetMYC1w encoded a 436-amino acid polypeptide in ‘As77’ without the ACT-like domain because a single nucleotide mutation at 1310 bp caused premature termination. Transient expression of AetMYC1p induced anthocyanin biosynthesis in ‘As77’ with the co-expression of AetMYB7D, while AetMYC1w could not cause induced anthocyanin biosynthesis under the same circumstances. Moreover, the transcript abundance of AetMYC1w was lower than that of AetMYC1p. AetMYC1 appears to be the candidate gene controlling the white coleoptile trait in Ae. tauschii, which can be used for potential biotech applications, such as producing new synthetic hexaploid wheat lines with different coleoptile colors.