StBEL5, a Transcription Factor in Potato (Solanum Tuberosum L.): Sequence Analysis, Predicting Motifs, and Molecular Cloning

Abstract

StBEL5 is a long distance travelling RNA transcript which encodes a transcription factor involved in the complex signalling pathways during tuberization in potato.StBEL5 is dimeric in nature withmolecular weight ~76 kDa. It is a member of the TALE superfamily which contacts with KNOTTED1- type genes for the regulation of tuberization. During the last few decades, it has gained considerable importance with regard to its structure and function particularly in the regulation of gene expression. StBEL5 proteins are found in some potato tissues. Several facile modern bioinformatics tools have been employed to generate data comprising of searching the sequence features and motifs, construction of phylogenetic tree. Moreover some other biochemical attributes were also predicted such as pI value, molecular weight, amino acid composition analysis.Total RNA was isolated and purified from the field-grown different potato tissues namely growing small tubers and leaves. RT-PCR approach was adopted using the total RNA preparations and oligodT primer. The size of the amplicon was ~ 2.0 kb in each case. A number of putative StBEL5 specific cDNA clones were obtained using pUC19 and pMD20-T vectors. The clones were partially characterized by restriction analysis and PCR.This study would help for further molecular studies on BEL5 in potato and other Solanaceae family members.