| Abstract: | QM gene was originally isolated from human by Dowdy et al during a search for a wilms′ tumor suppressor gene. Researches of QM gene focused mainly on animals and yeasts, little was known about plant QM gene. For better understanding of QM gene in rice, a QM homologous fragment was used as a probe to screen rice (Oryza sativa subsp. indica c.v. Guanglu′ ai 4) genomic DNA library,and two clones were obtained. One of them, OSQM2, encoded a highly basic protein of 184 amino acids, the sequence was about 3.1 kb long with a very special promoter region compared with other known QM genes. Seven potential G boxes could be found between -690 and -230. G box, which contains a ACGT core motif, had been reported in many plants to act as a cis acting DNA element in the regulation of genes in a variety of environmental conditions, such as ABA regulated gene expression, red light, UV light, anaerobiosis, and wounding etc. Two closely linked DRE related motifs (dehydration responsive element) could also be found between -182 and 173, which had a CCGAC conserved sequence and had been identified in many cold and drought responsive genes in Arabidopsis. Six MYC recognition sequences with the conserved motif NCANNTGN were also presented, which might be essential for ABA and drought responsive expression of the plant genes. |
