We investigated the structure of the homologs of DEP1 in other smallgrain cereals. Several truncated C-terminal deletions were observed in barley, and in bread wheat and its diploid wild progenitor Triticum urartu (Fig. 4a). To determine whether any novel gain-of-function was induced by the presence of these truncated genes, we generated a number of transgenic wheat plants carrying a pUbi:RNAi-TaDEP1 construct. The consequent downregulation of TaDEP1 resulted in an increase in the length of the ear, a less compact ear and a somewhat reduced number of spikelets (Fig. 4b,c). This suggests that a functionally equivalent mutation may have occurred early in the divergence of the wheat and barley lineages.

我们在其他的小粒谷粒作物中调查了与DEP1相当或相同的结构。发现在大麦、在面包小麦中以及它二倍体原始祖先乌拉尔图小麦中，一些切断 C－终端的缺失（图4a）。为了确定是否任何新型种功能性获得到是由这些切断基因的存在引发，我们生产了一些携带pUbi:RNAi-TaDEP1转基因小麦。随之发生的TaDEP1的下调造成了穗长增加、穗不紧凑和小穗状花数的减少（图4b，c）。这些表明，功能相当的突变可能在小麦和大麦谱系分歧的早期就已经产生。