EARLY ISOLATION OF CELL CYCLE-ASSOCIATED PROTEIN KINASE (OSWEE) GENE IN RICE (ORYZA SATIVA L.)

Abstract

The developments of grain are regulated by specific genes that control the size and filling of nutrients during the period of post-fertilization, those specific genes are often known as the cell cycle genes. This study aimed to isolate and characterize genes that are involved in regulation of cell cycle. Using yeast two-hybrid screening, we isolated a gene and identified as a OsWee which belongs to a member of cell cycle genes. This gene has an importance role in regulation of cell division during mitosis, based on the expression level analysis using RT-PCR, and highly expressed in kernels 5 days after pollination (5DAP). The sequence analysis showed, a full-length OsWee gene 1239 bp in size encodes for 413 amino acids. Database searches revealed that OsWee contains protein kinase C-like superfamily (PKc-domain), which is known to play a role in phosphorylation of the hydroxyl groups of serine and threonine amino acid to control the function of proteins. Detailed functional analyses of the OsWee may provide more information concerning the complex regulation of protein kinase in rice and for the molecular breeding leading to improve productivity of various agricultural crops.