Cloning and Expression Analysis of Ferric-chelate Reductase Gene（HbFRO） in Hevea brasiliensis

Key words: 
• Hevea brasiliensis /
• ferric-chelate reductase gene（HbFRO） /
• expression analysis

Abstract: A ferric-chelate reductase gene of rubber tree（ Hevea brasiliensis） was cloned by RT-PCR and named as HbFRO based on the data of RNA-Seq of rubber tree. The sequencing result revealed that the ORF of HbFRO is 221 7 bp,encoding a 739 amino acids peptides. Bioinformatics analysis showed that the HbFRO protein contains conserved Ferric_reduct,FAD_binding and NAD_binding domains,which are similar to those of the FRO from other plants,and had ten transmembrane domains. The amino acid sequence of HbFRO is 85%,80%,73% and 63% similar to that of the FRO from Manihot esculenta,Ricinus communis,Populus tomentosa and Arabidopsis thaliana,respectively. Semi-quantitative RT-PCR analysis showed that the expression level of the HbFRO was significantly higher in leaf,flower and latex than in bark and buds,but was significantly decreased in leaves inoculated with Colletotrichum gloeosporoiodes and Odium heveae Steinm. These implied that the HbFRO was differently expressed in different tissues and probably involved in disease defense.