Identification of new Pina null mutations among Asian common wheat cultivars

Wheat grain hardness is one of the most important phenotypes related to milling, baking and noodle making. Either a mutation of the Puroindoline-a (Pina) gene or Puroindoline-b (Pinb) gene results in hard grain texture. A deletion mutation of Pina (Pina-D1b) is widely distributed among common wheat cultivars. Although North/South American and Australian cultivars and their descendants have a 15-kbp deletion in common, two new types of deletion mutation were found among Asian wheat cultivars. A 4.4-kbp deletion was found in one Korean and two Chinese wheat cultivars beginning at position +371 within the Pina coding region. The other, a 10.4-kbp deletion, was found in three Chinese and nine Japanese wheat cultivars, including five Japanese landraces, beginning at position −5112. It caused the deletion of the full-length Pina gene. These findings suggest that Asian wheat cultivars are genetically distinct from those in other regions. The 4.4-kbp and 10.4-kbp deletion mutants were designated as Pina-D1r and Pina-D1s, respectively.