Cloning and bioinformatics analysis of sequence signature of violaxanthin de-epoxidase cDNA in tea plant(Camellia sinensis(L.)O.Kuntzes)

In order to clone a complete cDNA of violaxanthin de-epoxidases (VDE) from young leaves of Camellia sinensis, a pair of degenerate primers were designed according to the high conserved amino acid sequences in GenBank, and AT-PCR, 3 ^/5 ^-RACE and full-length PCR were used. Analysis of the cloned complete cDNA, which has 1 632 bp, showed that it encompassed a open reading frame (ORF) with 1 422 bp ecoding 473 amino acid (aa) residues, including 132-aa transit peptide and 341-aa mature polypeptide. Alignments with the deduced amino acid of mature proteins in four species of high plants show 83. 5% , 82. 7% ,82. 1 % and 83. 6% , identity with Arabidopsis thaliana, Lactuca saliva, Spinacia oleracea and Nicotiana tabacm,respectively.Meanwhile, the mature VDE protein in tea plant has a cysteine-rich domain, a lipocalin signature and a high glutamate-rich domain and the feature of thermal stability.