Homologues of a vacuolar processing enzyme that are expressed in different organs inArabidopsis thaliana
✍ Scribed by Tetsu Kinoshita; Mikio Nishimura; Ikuko Hara-Nishimura
- Publisher
- Springer
- Year
- 1995
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 859 KB
- Volume
- 29
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0167-4412
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✦ Synopsis
Vacuolar processing enzymes (VPEs) are responsible for the maturation of seed proteins. These processing enzymes belong to a novel group of cysteine proteinases with molecular masses of 37 to 39 kDa.
We isolated two genes of VPEs from a genomic library of Arabidopsis. The gene products were designated ~-VPE and fl-VPE, and they were 56~ identical in terms of amino acid sequence. The amino acid sequences of e-VPE and fl-VPE were also 55~o and 67~o identical to that of castor bean VPE, respectively. The gene for e-VPE had 7 introns, while that of fl-VPE had 8 introns. Northern blot analysis revealed that e-VPE is expressed in rosette leaves, cauline leaves and stems of Arabidopsis, while fl-VPE is predominantly expressed in the flowers and buds. Neither c~-VPE nor fl-VPE is expressed in the siliques. This result strongly suggests that the isolated genes encode isozymes of VPE that are specific to vegetative organs.