Three drought-responsive members of the nonspecific lipid-transfer protein gene family in Lycopersicon pennellii show different developmental patterns of expression.
Genomic clones of two nonspecific lipid-transfer protein genes from a drought-tolerant wild species of tomato (Lycopersicon pennellii Corr.) were isolated using as a probe a drought- and abscisic acid (ABA)-induced cDNA clone (pLE16) from cultivated tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.). Both genes (LpLtp1 and LpLtp2) were sequenced and their corresponding mRNAs were characterized; they are both interrupted by a single intron at identical positions and predict basic proteins of 114 amino acid residues. Genomic Southern data indicated that these genes are members of a small gene family in Lycopersicon spp. The 3'-untranslated regions from LpLtp1 and LpLtp2, as well as a polymerase chain reaction-amplified 3'-untranslated region from pLE16 (cross-hybridizing to a third gene in L. pennellii, namely LpLtp3), were used as gene-specific probes to describe expression in L. pennellii through northern-blot analyses. All LpLtp genes were exclusively expressed in the aerial tissues of the plant and all were drought and ABA inducible. Each gene had a different pattern of expression in fruit, and LpLtp1 and LpLtp2, unlike LpLtp3, were both primarily developmentally regulated in leaf tissue. Putative ABA-responsive elements were found in the proximal promoter regions of LpLtp1 and LpLtp2.
Trevino
M B
MB
Graduate Program in Molecular Biology and Department of Agronomy and Horticulture, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, 88003-8003, USA.
OConnell
M A
MA
D000040:Abscisic Acid / Q000494:pharmacology; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D052179:Antigens, Plant; D002352:Carrier Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics*; D015342:DNA Probes; D004190:Disasters; D018507:Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental / Q000187:drug effects; D018506:Gene Expression Regulation, Plant / Q000187:drug effects; D018551:Solanum lycopersicum / Q000235:genetics*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D005810:Multigene Family; D010940:Plant Proteins
D052179:Antigens, Plant; D002352:Carrier Proteins; D015342:DNA Probes; D010940:Plant Proteins; C511920:lipid transfer proteins, plant; D000040:Abscisic Acid