Two members of unassigned type of short-chain dehydrogenase/reductase superfamily (SDR) isolated from <Emphasis Type="Italic">Persicaria minor</Emphasis> show response towards ABA and drought stress

Alcohol dehydrogenases exist as a multigene family. Two isogenes, PmADHa and PmADHb were obtained from Persicaria minor via RACE-PCR were highly identical at the 5′-UTR and ORF region and highly divergent at the 3′-UTR. With the length of 1077 and 1163 bp respectively, PmADHa and PmADHb have 801 bp ORF length, encodes 266 amino acid residues. Four nucleotides are different between the two sequences in the ORF and caused only difference one of amino acid residue at the 107th position. PmADHa and PmADHb are categorized in short-chain dehydrogenase/reductase superfamily of Unassigned type, specifically in AT3G01980.1 family. Investigations of expression profile for both genes were conducted under the treatment of 100 μM exogenous ABA and drought stress using 20% PEG-8000 in leaves, stems and roots. Exogenous ABA treatment showed that the expression of PmADHa and PmADHb were highly up-regulated only in roots. Whereas, PmADHa and PmADHb showed up-regulation in response to drought stress in all organ tested. These indicate that PmADHa and PmADHb are involved in the ABA and drought signalling pathways. Peroxisome was predicted for the subcellular localization of PmADHa and PmADHb. The promoter analysis revealed that several stress-related elements were found in the promoter of PmADHa and PmADHb and these further strengthen its relation in the stress responses.