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Molecular cloning and analysis of four potato tuber mRNAs

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Abstract

Tuberization in potato is a complex developmental process involving the expression of a specific set of genes leading to the synthesis of tuber proteins. We here report the cloning and analysis of mRNAs encoding tuber proteins. From a potato tuber cDNA library four different recombinants were isolated which hybridized predominantly with tuber mRNAs. Northern blot hybridization experiments showed that three of them, pPATB2, p303 and p340, can be regarded as tuber-specific while the fourth, p322, hybridizes to tuber and stem mRNA. Hybrid-selected in vitro translation and nucleotide sequence analysis indicate that pPATB2 and p303 represent patatin and the proteinase inhibitor II mRNA respectively. Recombinant p322 represents an mRNA encoding a polypeptide having homology with the soybean Bowman-Birk proteinase inhibitor while p340 represents an mRNA encoding a polypeptide showing homology with the winged bean Kunitz trypsin inhibitor. In total, these four polypeptides constitute approximately 50% of the soluble tuber protein. Using Southern blot analysis of potato DNA we estimate that these mRNAs are encoded by small multigene families.

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Author notes

  1. Carolien ten Bosch & Jeanine D. Louwerse

    Present address: TNO-CIVO, P.O. Box 360, 3700 AJ, Zeist, Netherlands

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Institute Ital, P.O. Box 48, 6700 AA, Wageningen, Netherlands

    Willem J. Stiekema, Freek Heidekamp, Wim G. Dirkse, Joke van Beckum, Peter de Haan, Carolien ten Bosch & Jeanine D. Louwerse

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  1. Willem J. Stiekema
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  2. Freek Heidekamp
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Stiekema, W.J., Heidekamp, F., Dirkse, W.G. et al. Molecular cloning and analysis of four potato tuber mRNAs. Plant Mol Biol 11, 255–269 (1988). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00027383

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00027383

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