Post-anthesis photoassimilation is very important for wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) grain filling. The aim of the present study was to map quantitative trait loci (QTL) for post-anthesis dry matter accumulation (DMA). A set of 120 doubled haploid (DH) lines, derived from winter wheat varieties Hanxuan 10 and Lumai 14, was grown under field conditions in two consecutive growing seasons during 2002–2004 in Beijing. Post-anthesis DMA per culm and related traits, including flag leaf greenness (FLG) and flag leaf weight (FLW; dry weight per flag leaf) at flowering, and grain weight per ear (GWE) were investigated. All traits segregated continuously in the DH population in both trials. The DMA was significantly and positively correlated with GWE, with the correlation coefficients being 0.79 and 0.66 in the 2002–2003 and 2003–2004 growing seasons (both P < 0.01), suggesting the importance of DMA in grain filling. Further correlation analysis showed that FLW was more closely correlated with DMA and GWE than FLG in both growing seasons, indicating that FLW was more important than FLG in influencing DMA and GWE. In total, 30 QTLs for these four traits were mapped and distributed on 10 chromosomes. Phenotypic variations explained by an individual QTL were in the range 5.8%–21.3%, 5.9%–17.2%, 5.1%–18.1%, and 5.6%–16.2% for FLG, FLW, DMA, and GWE, respectively. Eight QTLs for DMA were detected, of which four (on chromosome arms 2AS, 4BL, 5AS, and 7AS) were linked with QTLs for GWE; two (on chromosome arms 5BL and 7BL) coincided with QTLs for FLW. These results may provide useful information for developing marker-assisted selection for the improvement of DMA.(Author for correspondence.Tel：+86 (0) 10 6488 9381；Fax：+86 (0) 10 6488 9381；E-mail:yptong@genetics.ac.cn)

In order to find new insect resistance genes, four homologous cDNAs, hta-a, hta-b, hta-c and hta-d with lengths of 775, 718, 784 and 752 bp, respectively (GenBank accession numbers AF477031–AF477034), were isolated from a tuber cDNA expression library of Helianthus tuberosus L. Sequence analysis revealed that all four cDNAs contain an open reading frame of 444 bp, coding a polypeptide of 147 amino acid residues, and that the sequences of the cDNAs are very similar to those of the mannose-binding agglutinin genes of the jacalin-related family. In hemagglutination reactions and hapten inhibition assays, affinity-purified HTA(Helianthus tuberosus agglutinin) from induced Escherichia coli BL21(DE3) expressing GST-HTA shows hemagglutination ability and a higher carbohydrate-binding ability for mannose than other tested sugars. Trypsin inhibitory activity was detected in the crude extracts of induced E. coli BL21(DE3) expressing HTA, and was further verified by trypsin inhibitory activity staining on native polyacrylamide gel. The mechanism of interaction between HTA and trypsin was studied by molecular modeling. We found that plenty of hydrogen bonds and electrostatic interactions can be formed between the supposed binding sites of HTA-b and the active site of trypsin, and that a stable HTA/trypsin complex can be formed. The results above imply that HTA might be a bifunctional protein with carbohydrate-binding activity and trypsin inhibitory activity. Moreover, Northern blotting analysis demonstrated that hta is predominantly expressed in tubers of H. tuberosus, very weakly expressed in stems, but not expressed at all in other tissues. Southern blotting analysis indicated that hta is encoded by a multi-gene family. The insect resistance traits have been described in another paper.(Author for correspondence.)Tel(Fax): (0)10 6485 2890；E-mail:zzhu@genetics.ac.cn