Abstract
Glycine betaine accumulates at high level as an osmoprotectant inside cells of several plant families which have tolerance to salt or drought stresses. Betaine aldehyde dehydrogenase (BADH) catalyses the last reaction of two-step oxidation of step in biosynthesis of glycine betaine from choline.To understand the role of BADH during stress response, we have isolated a BADH gene from oat (Avena sativa), and investigated changes in levels of activity and transcripts of BADH. A partial cDNA was amplified using primers designed from a region conserved in several known BADH sequences and a full-length cDNA was obtained by RACE methods. RT-PCR analysis showed that the transcription level of BADH was increased by salt, drought and ABA treatments. The salt induction of BADH transcript varied, depending upon the developmential status of plants. The predicted amino acid sequence had unique SKL tripeptide at C-terminus, indicating that oat BADH is localized in peroxisome.
