A NOVEL GENE OF TOMATO PREFERENTIALLY EXPRESSED IN FRUIT ENCODES A PROTEIN WITH A CA2-DEPENDENT LIPID-BINDING DOMAIN()

A cDNA clone, called CLB1, was isolated from a cDNA library from tomat o (Lycopersicon esculentum) and characterized. The CLB1 cDNA contains an open reading frame of 1518 bp, and encodes a putative protein of 50 6 amino acids with a predicted molecular mass of 54 633 Da. The deduce d CLB1 amino acid sequence contains a domain that exhibits from 26% to 37% identity with the Ca2+-dependent lipid-binding domains of cytosol ic phospholipase A(2), protein kinase C, Rabphilin-3A, and Synaptotagm in I of animals. Southern blot analysis indicates that the CLB1 gene b elongs to a small gene family in the tomato genome. The CLB1 mRNA is p referentially expressed in fruit tissues.