Four rice genes encoding NADP malic enzyme exhibit distinct expression profiles.
In plants, the NADP malic enzymes (NADP-MEs) are encoded by small gene families. These NADP-ME gene families are relatively well described in C4 plants but not well studied in C3 plants. In this study, we investigated the NADP-ME gene family in a model C3 monocot plant (rice, Oryza sativa) based on its recently released genomic DNA sequence. We found that the rice NADP-ME family is composed of four members, one plastidic NADP-ME and three cytosolic versions. Although the rice NADP-ME genes identified share a high degree of similarity with one another, one cytosolic NADP-ME (OscytME3) contains several unique amino acid substitutions within highly conserved amino acid regions. Phylogenetic analysis showed that OscytME3 might be derived from a different evolutionary branch than the other three rice genes. Expression analysis of the four rice NADP-ME genes indicated that each had a different tissue-specific and developmental profile, although all four responded to stress stimuli.
Chi
Wei
W
Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Haidian District, Beijing, People's Republic of China. chiweimr@163.com
Yang
Jianghua
J
Wu
Naihu
N
Zhang
Fang
F
D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D019943:Amino Acid Substitution; D017124:Conserved Sequence; D003600:Cytosol; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D018506:Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; D017343:Genes, Plant; D008291:Malate Dehydrogenase / Q000235:genetics*; D005810:Multigene Family; D012275:Oryza / Q000235:genetics*; D010802:Phylogeny; D018087:Plastids
D008291:Malate Dehydrogenase; C031917:malate dehydrogenase (oxaloacetate-decarboxylating) (NADP+)