DUPLICATION OF THE STRUCTURAL GENE FOR THE PLASTID-SPECIFIC ISOZYME OF ALDOLASE IN CICER

Fructose-bisphosphate aldolase (ALD, EC 4.1.2.13) was analysed in Cicer arietinum L. (the cultivated chickpea) and all eight annual wild Cicer species, C. bijugum Rech., C. chorassanicum (Bge.) M. Pop., C. cuneatum Rich., C. echinospermum Davis, C. judaicum Boiss., C. pinnatifidum J. & S., C. reticulatum Lad., and C. yamashitae Kit. Duplicate genes were identified for the plastid-specific isozyme of ALD in C. arietinum and all wild species except C. yamashitae and one accession of C. reticulatum. Gene duplication was indicated by the presence of a true-breeding five-banded zymotype of the tetrameric plastid ALD in these species. Monogenic inheritance was confirmed for the alleles of one of the loci. The occurrence of ALD gene duplication in most of the annual Cicer species suggests that this duplication is of ancient origin. However, this duplication must have occurred after divergence of Cicer from the closely related genera Pisum and Lens because the plastid ALD is controlled monogenically in these latter two genera.