Genome-wide identification and evolution of the tubulin gene family in Camelina sativa.

Background: Tubulins play crucial roles in numerous fundamental processes of plant development. In flowering plants, tubulins are grouped into α-, β- and γ-subfamilies, while α- and β-tubulins possess a large isotype diversity and gene number variations among different species. This circumstance leads to insufficient recognition of orthologous isotypes and significantly complicates extrapolation of obtained experimental results, and brings difficulties for the identification of particular tubulin isotype function.

Intron length polymorphism of β-tubulin genes of Aegilops biuncialis Vis.

Intron-specific DNA polymorphism is present among plant β-tubulin gene family members and is considered to be one of the molecular markers based on the difference of tubulin introns length assayed both separately (TBP: 1st intron) or in combination (h-TBP: 1st and 2nd introns). These two approaches are possibly useful for wheat breeding programs, since TBP and h-TBP help to differentiate between the accessions of Aegilops biuncialis Vis., a wild relative of wheat.