ANALYSIS OF 5'-REGION OF GLUTELIN GENES FROM WILD-RICE SPECIES

The structure of the 5' flanking region of glutelin genes amplified fr om the various wild rice species was analyzed by cloning and sequencin g. The results showed that beyond the essential boxes (legumin, CAAT, AACA and TATA), the 5' region of rice glutelin genes have numerous put ative enhancers (long-direct and short-direct repeats) and putative re gulatory segments (RY repeats, 300 bp elements, nuclear protein bindin g sites) though portions of a few elements have been deleted in some w ild species. The possible roles of most of the putative elements in gl utelin gene expression remain to be determined. The sequence length an d structure of glutelin 5' regions vary among rice species. On the bas is of the length, the degree of homolgy, and the corresponding base su bstitutions and deletions in the 5' regions of glutelin genes, the aut hors suggest that glutelin genes, in the subfamily Glua can be classif ied into three kinds of members, each with its 5' region of 0.5 kb, 0. 9 kb, or 1.2 kb. A member gene in the subfamily may reside at one or m ore loci in a rice genome. The same member gene that appears among ric e species with minor deletion, addition, or substitution may be design ated as alleles of that gene.