Isolation and Sequencing of Ribosome Inactivating Protein Gene from Iranian Rice (Oryza Sativa)

The ribosome inactivating proteins (RIPs) are a group of proteins that are able to inactivate eukaryotic protein synthesis by attacking the 28S ribosomal RNA. Recent studies have shown that some RIPs possess strong anti-human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and anti-tumor activity. A cDNA encoding type 1 ribosome-inactivating protein (RIP) from the leaves of Iranian rice (Oryza sativa) cultivar Kazemi was isolated. The cDNA consisted of an open reading frame (ORF) of 813 nucleotides encoding a 29 kDa protein of 271 amino acids. The RIP gene was cloned in PUC19 vector and sequenced. The sequence showed 98.9% homology with RIP gene sequence in gene bank. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]