The Expression Pattern Of Pyruvate Kinase Family In Rice

Pyruvate Kinase is an key enzyme involved in glycolysis which is the final step in the glycolytic pathway, and the glycolytic pathway is the key step involved in the yield and utilization of energy of the plant. The PK family genes in Arabidopsis thaliana have been reported in some research, but no systemic report in rice has been found. In order to explain the evolutionary relationships between the proteins of the gene family, we scan the rice genome with bioinformatic method and acquire 10 PK-PK-C genes which are highly conserved in the PK region. We also alignment the amino acid sequence using CLUSTAL X program and draw the phylogenetic tree. Amino acid sequence alignment indicates that the amino acid consistency of all the genes of the Pyruvate Kinase family is 38.4% and Phylogenetic tree analysis also suggests the existence of four pairs of paralogous genes of the family; MEME program analysis shows that the family has a fully conserved motif and the ordered sequence of these motifs that is basically the same. Signal peptid analysis of The N-terminal sequences of the gene family shows that four PKs are located in mitochondria, five in the cytoplasm, one in the nucleus. Semi-quantitative RT-PCR of the expression patterns of ten PK genes in Root, Stem, Leaf, Sheath and Panicle shows that the expression of Os04g0677500,Os01g0660300,Os11g0148500,Os07g0181000 and Os12g0145700 is high in various organs, indicating the constitutive expression of the gene, whereas Os01g0276700,Os11g0216000and Os03g0672300 is respectively differentially expressed in various organs and almost no expression of Os10g0571200 and Os03g0325000 is detected in various organs. At the same time, Microarray data are listed as a control. The diverse expressions of the ten PK genes suggesting their functional diversity may emerge as a way for rice to adapte to different living environment in evolution. The preliminary results obtained in this study can provide a foundation for in-depth study of the biological functions of Pyruvate Kinases.