Compared to other cereal crops Trichostatin A molecular weight such as wheat (Triticum aestivum L.), barley (Horderum vulgare L.) and oat (Avenasativa L.), rye has a number of positive and special attributes, such as outstanding cold hardiness, excellent drought tolerance and strong disease resistance. Apart from its use as a minor cereal crop and a donor of the R genome to triticale (×Triticosecale),

it has also been extensively used as an important germplasm source to introgress resistance genes into wheat [2]. Some rye attributes are conserved in triticale, an artificial hybrid species made by crossing wheat and rye [3]. Triticale is being explored for use as a novel bioindustrial crop in Canada. Starch synthesis is a complicated process in plants. The first step takes place inside and/or outside amylopasts via ADP-glucose pyrophosphorylase (AGPase, EC 2.7.7.27) for synthesis of ADP glucose, an activated glucosyl donor for starch synthesis [4], [5] and [6]. Subsequent steps lead to two separate pathways for amylose or amylopectin

synthesis. Granule-bound starch synthase (GBSS, EC 2.4.1.21), also known as waxy protein, is responsible for the synthesis of amylose polymers [6], [7] and [8]. Amylopectin synthesis results from the elongation of glucan chains with both α-(1,4)-linkage and α-(1,6)-linkage synthesized by the multiple subunits or isoforms of starch synthase (SS, EC 2.4.1.21), starch-branching enzyme (SBE, EC 2.4.1.18) Compound C clinical trial [9] and [10] and starch debranching enzymes (DBE). According to their different substrate specificities, DBEs are divided into two types: isoamylase (EC 3.2.1.68) and pullulanase (EC 3.2.1.41) [9] and [11]. Genotypic mutants with low starch but high water-soluble polysaccharides were

identified in maize (Zea mays L.) [5] and [12], rice (Oryza sativa L.) [13], barley [14] and Arabidopsis thaliana [15] and [16], demonstrating Roflumilast that DBEs, in conjunction with SS and SBE, play an essential role in development and accumulation of amylopectin [8] and [17]. Characterization of barley mutants, transgenic potato and rice also indicate that isoamylase plays a crucial role in initiating the development of starch granules [14], [18] and [19]. Starch is the most important carbohydrate in crop grains, but gene interaction in starch synthesis and accumulation in polyploid crops has not been well explored. Since rye has contributed one third of the hexaploid triticale genome, rye isoamylase must be one of the essential enzymes for amylopectin synthesis in triticale grains. However, there is no scientific report about the molecular features of rye isoamylase genes available in public databases.