Sequence Characters of Orthologs of Transparent Testa 10 Laccase-Like Gene in Brassica

Recent research indicated that the mutated Arabidopsis AtALC15 genes encoding laccase-like proteins in transparent testa 10 mutant play important roles in manipulating of yellow seededness traits, which is a desirable characteristic for breeding of oilseed Brassica crops. Beside some laccase-like DNA genes annotation in Arabidopsis thaliana, some laccase-like genes or fragments in Brassica napus have been discovered using degenerate primers designed based on consensus sequences. A laccase-like fragments also displayed differentially between the mRNA of yellow-seeded and brown-seeded Brassica juncea. To facilitate identification of the candidate orthologs of tt10 gene, the sequences of laccase-like genes in Brassica were characterized and comprised using alignment and clustalW programs. All Brassica laccase-like genes in Genbank now were not full-length cDNA and missed some exons and UTR, which was important for function analysis. So it was difficult to depict accurately the phylogenetic relationships of them with tt10 and other Arabidopsis laccase genes. However, some strongly conservative regions among them were found based on the consensus sequence. Useful information was provided in these sequences for design of new primers to clone more and/or longer laccase-like genes.