Abstract
An endo-(1,3;1,4)-beta-glucanase (EGLase) cDNA, OsEGL1, was isolated from a rice cDNA library with barley EGLase isozyme EII gene as a probe. The BLAST search with the deduced protein sequence of OsEGL1 as a query detected another beta-glucanase gene with 64% of positional identity at amino acid levels with OsEGL1, denoted as OsEGL2. OsEG2 was isolated by PCR using rice genomic DNA as a template. The highly conserved amino acid sequences common to known grass EGLases were preserved in both OsEGL1 and OsEGL2 deduced proteins. Northern analysis revealed that OsEGL1 is most highly expressed in seedling roots under normal condition. In rice seedling leaves, OsEGL1 expression specifically increased in response to ethephon, methyl jasmonate and abscisic acid, and by mechanical wounding. OsEGL2 expression was not detected in any rice tissues tested in this work. A possible physiological role of OsEGL1 in rice seedlings is discussed.
