Abstract
The plant-specific calcium-dependent protein kinases (CDPKs), which constitute gene family in Arabidopsis, play important roles in regulating downstream components of calcium signaling. The biological functions of most CDPKs and their functional divergence/redundancy are unclear. In this study, we identified 29 rice CDPK genes by a database search. RNA gel blot analyses revealed that the majority of rice CDPK genes exhibited tissue-specific expression patterns. Expression of OsCPK9 was elevated in seedlings infected with rice blast fungus, indicating that this gene may play an important role in signaling in response to rice blast. For the comprehensive analyses of gene functions of rice CDPKs, the full-length CDPK cDNAs were placed under the control of maize ubiquitin promoter, and the resultant over-expression constructs were introduced into rice through Agrobacterium-mediated transformation. Phenotypic and gene expression analyses of the transgenic lines are in progress.
