Abstract:

The full-length cDNA of the g subunit of R-phycoerythrin from Corallina officinalis L. was cloned by rapid amplification of cDNA ends (RACE) method, and sequenced. The full-length cDNA is a 2 308 bp consisting of 5'' untranslated region (UTR) of 1 203 bp, an open reading frame (ORF) of 960 bp that encodes 320 amino acids, and 3'' UTR of 145 bp. The mature g polypeptide contains two unique internal repeat domains as reported by Apt et al. (2001). Sequence analysis of the different clones revealed different 3''-end sequences at the g subunit. The difference between the 3''-end sequences suggests that the g subunit may have more than one copy, or have gone through different post-transcriptional modification. By comparing the DNA and cDNA sequences, we found that the g subunit is an intronless gene. This is the first report of the g subunit gene of R-phycoerythrin from C. officinalis .

Key words: Corallina officinalis , R-phycoerythrin, g subunit, rapid amplification of cDNA ends (RACE)