CDNA SEQUENCE AND TISSUE-SPECIFIC EXPRESSION OF AN ANIONIC FLAX PEROXIDASE

A flax (Linum usitatissimum L.) lambda gt10 cDNA library was screened with a probe coding for the amino terminus of a flax peroxidase. The probe was generated by PCR amplification of the library with one of the lambda gt10 sequencing primers and a mixed oligonucleotide derived from a well-conserved amino acid region (distal heme ligand) found in all plant peroxidases. A positive clone (FLXPER2) was isolated and characterized. The cDNA contains 1153 nucleotides, excluding the poly(A) tail, and encodes a mature protein of 297 amino acids with a molecular mass of 31.9 kDa. The mature protein's amino acid sequence contains three highly conserved regions, two of which contain histidine ligands for the heme group. The deduced amino acid sequence has nine cysteine residues. Eight are identically located to those of horseradish C peroxidase, which participate in four disulfide bridges; these cysteines are highly conserved in all plant peroxidases. One potential N-glycosylation site (Asn-X-Thr/Ser) is present. The predicted pI value of 4.5 identifies FLXPER2 as an anionic peroxidase. Northern blot analysis shows that its mRNA expression is unique to stem tissue. Amino acid sequence comparisons show high similarity between FLXPER2 and peanut, rice, and tobacco peroxidases.