1. The insectivorous sundew (Drosera rotundifolia, L.) might be a novel source of PR genes for biotechnology
- Subjects
plants ,sativa l ,beta-1 ,3-glucanases ,beta-glucanase ,sequence ,tobacco ,PRI Bioscience ,resistance ,expression ,Laboratorium voor Moleculaire Biologie ,Laboratory of Molecular Biology ,pathogenesis-related proteins ,basic chitinase - Abstract
The gene pool of insectivorous sundew, Drosera rotundifolia L., was studied to identify and analyse sequences encoding for pathogenesis-related (PR) proteins. The digested genomic DNA was in ¿inverted¿ Southern hybridisation probed to 19 clones for PR genes from different plant sources. From representatives of PR subgroups 1¿5, 8 and 9, genes for glucanases (PR-2), chitinases (PR-3) and thaumatin-like proteins (PR-5) were hybridising. A PCR approach using degenerated primers was chosen to isolate sequences of sundew glucanase gene. Translation of a 500 bp long putative glucanase revealed similarity to catalytic domain of other glucanase amino acid sequences. Despite the peculiarity of this sequence, it contains all conserved amino acid residues important for catalysis. The sequence obtained in this study represents one of the first sequences encoding for nuclear genes in sundews reported, and brings the first evidence for presence of glucanases in sundew. The potential use of this sequence in biotechnology is considered as well.
- Published
- 2004