Widespread tissue expression of nepenthesin-like aspartic protease genes in Arabidopsis thaliana.
There are approximately 69 genes encoding aspartyl protease homologues in Arabidopsis thaliana, and most of the gene products constitute a novel subfamily of aspartic proteases. However, their physiological roles are largely unknown. As an initial step to shed light on the roles of these nepenthesin-like aspartic proteases (NAPs), a phylogenetic tree was constructed, which indicated that these proteases are classified into several distinct sub-sub-groups. Based on these results, specific primers were designed for genes selected from several of these groups and their tissue expression was investigated using RT-PCR. The results indicated that these genes are widely expressed in several tissues, such as leaves, stems, seeds and pods, suggesting ubiquitous occurrence and multiple functions of the corresponding proteases in the tissues of A. thaliana.
Laboratory of Molecular Biochemistry, School of Life Sciences, Tokyo University of Pharmacy and Life Sciences, 1432-1 Horinouchi, Hachioji, Tokyo 192-0392, Japan.
Kenji
K
Takahashi
Hitomi
H
Niwa
Namiko
N
Yokota
Keiko
K
Kubota
Hideshi
H
Inoue
D017360:Arabidopsis / Q000201:enzymology / Q000235:genetics*; D029681:Arabidopsis Proteins / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics*; D016282:Aspartic Acid Endopeptidases / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics*; D004587:Electrophoresis, Agar Gel; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D015971:Gene Expression Regulation, Enzymologic; D018506:Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; D010802:Phylogeny; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D014158:Transcription, Genetic
D029681:Arabidopsis Proteins; D016282:Aspartic Acid Endopeptidases