Cytosolic ascorbate peroxidase from Arabidopsis thaliana L. is encoded by a small multigene family

A second cytosolic ascorbate peroxidase (cAPX; EC 1.11.1.11) gene from Arabidopsis thaliana has been characterised. This second gene (designated APX1b) maps to linkage group 3 and potentially encodes a cAPX as closely related to that from other dicotyledonous species as to the other member of this gene family (Kubo et al, 1993, FEBS Lett 315: 313–317; here designated APX1a), which maps to linkage group 1. In contrast, the lack of sequence similarity in non-coding regions of the genes implies that they are differentially regulated. Under non-stressed conditions only APX1a is expressed. APX1b was identified during low-stringency probing using a cDNA coding for pea cAPX which, in turn, was recovered from a cDNA library by immunoscreening with an antiserum raised against tea plastidial APX (pAPX). No pAPX cDNAs were recovered, despite the antiserum displaying specificity for pAPX in Western blots.Abbreviations ATG methionine translation initiation codon - bp base pair - cAPX cytosolic ascorbate peroxidase - pAPX plastidial ascorbate peroxidase - RFLP restriction fragment length polymorphism Accession numbers: The APX1b sequence is in the EMBL database under accession number X80036M.S. gratefully acknowledges the support from the Junta Nacional de Investigaçâo Cientifica e Tecnológia, Portugal (grant number BD/394/90-IE). This work was supported by the Biotechnological and Biological Sciences Research Council through a grant-in-aid to the John Innes Centre.