Abstract
Three isozymes of chitinase were induced by a fungal elicitor in cultured tobacco BY-2 cells. The most acidic one, designated TBC-3, was described here. The molecular mass of TBC-3 was estimated to be 28.5 kDa. The N-terminal amino acid sequence of TBC-3 was analyzed and a homology search was performed. Fifteen amino acids at the N-terminus showed 60% homology to class II chitinases from other plants but not higher than 27% homology to already known chitinases from tobacco. Therefore, TBC-3 is thought to be a novel tobacco chitinase that may be classified into class II.
