Plant Molecular Biology 19: 531-532, 1992. © 1992 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in Belgium.

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Sequence

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Structure and sequence of a dehydrin-like gene in Arabidopsis thaliana

Dean Rouse, Christopher A. Gehring and Roger W. Parish Department of Botany, La Trobe University, Bundoora, 3083, Australia

Received 5 February 1992; accepted 12 February 1992

Key words: Arabidopsis thaliana, dehydrin nucleotide sequence

Abscisic acid (ABA) and osmotic stress (possibly mediated by ABA) induce a large number of different genes [for review see 1]. Recently a number of cDNAs coding for dehydration- and ABA-induced proteins (dehydrins) have been characterized in barley (e.g. B18) and maize (M13) [2]. These dehydrins are similar to each other and to basic, glycine-rich rice RAB (Re- sponsive to ABA) proteins which are inducible (to different degrees) by abscisic acid as well as osmotic stress [3, 4]. Furthermore, some cotton LEA (late embryogenesis-abundant) proteins show considerable homology in their amino acid composition with the dehydrins and RAB pro- teins [5]. A tomato cDNA (TAS 14) inducible by salt stress and ABA also codes for a protein sim- ilar to the LEA (Dl l ) and the RAB (21, 16A) proteins [6].

An Arabidopsis genomic library was screened with a maize dehydrin cDNA and positive phage clones were identified at a frequency of approxi-

Fig. 1. Nucleotide sequence and the deduced amino acid se- quence of a genomic clone containing a dehydrin-like gene. The intron is represented by lower-case letters and the aster- isk (*) indicates the stop codon. A putative polyadenylation signal is underlined. Two amino acid motifs common to de- hydrins are printed in italics.

1 ATTTGAT~T~T~T~TACTATA~ATTA~ATCCCTATCC_hA~GT 51 ~CGGTTCTATAAAAATACCATTCAAGAGCGTATACATCTTTATCCATCA i01 GTGTCTT~TTT~TCTATAGCTAAAAAAA~TTC~T~TAAAA~T 151 ATGGAGTCTTACCAAAAC~GTCC~AGCG~G~GACT~CC~GCT M E S Y Q N Q S G A Q Q T H Q Q L 201 ~ACCAATTT~AAATCCATTTCCAGC~C~CCGGAGCCTATC~C~ D Q F G N P F P A T T G A Y G T A

251 CC~AGCTCCAGCCGTGGCTGAA~GT~TTT~GTGGCATGCTTCAC

G A P A V A E G G G L S G M L H 301 CGTTCTC~GAGTAGCTCTAGCTCTAGCTCGgtatgcttctgttttacgca R S G S S S S S S S 351 attgcttttgcaatatttagtgtactctttctatatcaccaaatacaaga 401 agtttcatttaatttgacttcacctaactagaaaaaataaggaaaccata 451 ttttagatttaactaagaattacatattttttagaaattaccattttttg 501 tgttcaaatgataagttatttgtttgtaatttgaattatattcaaggtat 551 accatatattttaaattactaaataaaatatggaaagtgttgcaaataca 601 tgtagctttttaatttttctgacgattttcatgcatgaa~A~A~A~

E D D G 651 GACTA~T~AGGA~G~G~G~TAACGGAG~GA~AAA

L G G R R R K K K G I T E K I K 701 GAG~GCTGCCGGGTCAT~CGACTCC~CAAGACTTCTTC~TA~TTC E K L P G H H D S N K T S S L G S 751 TACA-ACGACGGCCTATGATACC~CCGTT~CCACGA~GAAAGG~ T T T A Y D T G T V H H E K K G M

801 ~AT~A~GATCAAAGAG~GCTTCCG~T~T~TCATTAGTTT~T

M E K I K E K L P G G H H * 851 TTT~TT~CT~TTT~TG~TCGTTACGCTTATGGTCGT~TGG 901 ~TAAATTATAAACCCTCTC

The nucleotide sequence data reported will appear in the EMBL, GenBank and DDBJ Nucleotide Sequence Databases under the accession number X64199.

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mately one per genome. A subclone designated XERO 1 was sequenced (Fig. 1). An open read- ing frame of 694 nucleotides was found. It con- tained one intron delimited by splice consensus sequences and a polyadenylation site 56 nucle- otides downstream of the stop codon. The de- duced amino acid sequence predicts a protein containing a serine run and two other amino acid motifs [ KKG(I/L)(K/T)EKI(K/M)EK(I/L/ M)PG and E K K G ( I / M / V ) M ( D / E ) K I K ( D / E)K(I /L)PG] which are common to dehydrins, RAB and TAS proteins.

Acknowledgements

We thank Drs P. Chandler and T. Close (CSIRO Division of Plant Industry, Canberra) for a maize M3 cDNA clone and Dr D. Smyth (Monash University) for the Arabidopsis genomic library.

References

1. Skriver K, Mundy J: Gene expression in response to ab- scisic acid and osmotic stress. Plant Cell 2: 503- 512 (1990).

2. Close TJ, Kortt AA, Chandler PM: A cDNA based com- parison of dehydration-induced proteins (dehydrins) in barley and corn. Plant Mol Biot 13:95-108 (1989).

3. Mmady J, Chua N-H: Abscisic acid and water-stress in- duce the expression of a novel rice gene. EMBO J 7: 2278- 2286 (1988).

4. Yamaguchi-Shinosaki K, Mundy J, Chua N-H: Four tightly linked rab genes are differentially expressed in rice. Plant Mol Biol 14:29-39 (1989).

5. Baker J, Steele C, Dure L: Sequence and characterization of 6 Lea proteins and their genes from cotton. Plant Mol Biol 11:277-291 (1988).

6. Godoy JA, Pardo JM, Pintor-Toro JA: A tomato cDNA inducible by salt stress and abscisic acid: nucleotide se- quence and expression pattern. Plant Mol Biol 15: 695- 705 (1990).