A GENOMIC CLONE OF A TYPE-I CAB GENE ENCODING A LIGHT-HARVESTING CHLOROPHYLL A B BINDING-PROTEIN OF PHOTOSYSTEM-II IDENTIFIED FROM LODGEPOLE PINE/

A type I cab gene encoding chlorophyll a and b binding protein from lo dgepole pine (Pinus contorta Dougl., var. latifolia (Engelm.)) has bee n isolated and sequenced. The gene encodes a proposed 40 amino acid tr ansit peptide and a 234 amino acid mature CAB polypeptide. There is no evidence of an intron and examination of the type specific amino acid s confirm this to be a photosystem II type I cab gene. The coding regi on is highly conserved with a similar gene from Scots pine, the homolo gy extending into the 5' and 3' untranslated regions. Sequence compari son of the 1-kb region upstream of the translation start codon from th e lodgepole pine cab gene exhibited little similarity to identified re gulatory regions in pea, tobacco, wheat, and Arabidopsis cab genes. Th e cab gene, which is 62% G + C rich, is surrounded by 70-75% A + T ric h regions, which may confer some regulatory feature on its expression.