ATPUMP - AN ARABIDOPSIS GENE ENCODING A PLANT UNCOUPLING MITOCHONDRIAL PROTEIN

A cDNA clone (AtPUMP) encoding a plant uncoupling mitochondrial protei n was isolated from Arabidopsis thaliana. The cDNA contains an open re ading frame of 921 nucleotides encoding 306 amino acids (predicted mol ecular weight 32708), The predicted polypeptide is 81% identical and 8 9% similar to the potato UCP-like protein, and includes an energy tran sfer protein motif common to mitochondrial transporters. The AtPUMP ge ne exists as a single cop! in the Arabidopsis genome, The correspondin g transcript was expressed in all tissues and was strongly induced by cold treatment. We suggest that the putative AtPUMP protein may play a role in heat-requiring physiological events in Arabidopsis. (C) 1998 Federation of European Biochemical Societies.