Isolation and characterization of stress related Heat shock protein calmodulin bindinggene from cultivated cotton (Gossypium hirsutumL.)

Due to the important role of cotton drought tolerant varieties and the reported involvement in this trait of Heat-shock protein calmodulin binding, the respective gene (HSPCB) was isolated and characterized from cultivated cotton, Gossypium hirsutum(Zeta 2 cultivar), using a chromosome-walking technique. Segments of 3079 bp genomic and 1572 bp cDNA sequences were obtained. Alignments revealed that the HSPCBcDNA contains a single open reading frame of 1374 bp comprising the complete coding region and that the gene possesses five exons. The predicted amino acid sequence shares 72, 54, 58, 32, 31, 27, 28 and 27% identities with A. thaliana, rice, tobacco, Penicillium camemberti, Rhizopus oryzae, Thermomyces lanuginosus, Rhizomucor miehei, Aspergillus nigerLipase/HSPCB proteins, respectively. In addition, the expression profile of this gene was preliminary studied in different plant tissues. Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) was performed using total RNA samples from leaves, stems and roots of the Australian cotton variety Siokra L23, known for its drought tolerance, isolated after a 4-d osmotic stress treatment (i.e. at the end of the stress period). Semi-quantitative transcription analysis indicated that, under the experimental conditions employed in present study, the gene is expressed in all plant tissues examined.[PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]