cDNA cloning and expression analysis of psr12 gene, encoding an acid phosphatase .

Esfahani, Kasra^1,2; and Malboobi, Mohammad Ali¹.

1. National Research Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology,

    P.O. Box: 14155-6343, Tehran, Iran.

2. Agriculture Faculty of Tehran University, Karaj, Iran.

Plants are usually faced with low amounts of absorbable phosphate causing decreased growth rate and yield. As an adaptive strategy plants synthesize enzymes known as acid phosphatase that release soluble phosphate from its insoluble compounds inside and outside of the cells. An Arabidobsis thaliana acid phosphatase was cloned and designated as �psr12�. The effects of phosphate deficiency on expression of this gene in plant root and shoot were studied by comparative-quantitative RT-PCR. It was shown that phosphate deficiency caused increase in the expression of this gene in both root and shoot. It was also revealed that the expression of this gene was increased accumulatively when the phosphate starvation continued. The expression was increased gradually by the fifth day when remained almost the same until fourteenth day of phosphate starvation stress. In the plants growing under phosphate starvation for 21 days, the expression was even higher. This could be because of the effect of senescence, as well.