Characterization of CDC48 in Allium cepa

Abstract

Onion, Allium cepa, is a model plant for experimental observation of mitotic cell division in practice of fundamental biology, because its chromosome is big and easy to observe. In order to develop new academic tools for visualization of plant cytokinesis, molecular cloning of onion mitotic genes, which are related to cell division, cell cycle, and chromosome segregation, is indispensable. Here we isolated CDC48 cDNA (AcCDC48) from onion seedlings, which encodes an AAA-ATPase chaperone and is known to play a role in cell division in broad species of organism. To characterize AcCDC48, we performed phylogenetic and DNA gel blot analyses, and discussed about the possible application of mammalian antibodies to detect it. The full-length onion CDC48 sequence provides useful information for future development of molecular markers to visualize cell division by using antibodies or GFP-fusion proteins.