Isolation and characterization of a cDNA clone from Arabidopsis thaliana with partial sequence similarity to integrins.

An Arabidopsis thaliana cDNA, called At14a, was isolated by immunoscreening an expression library with an anti-integrin antibody. The At14a cDNA is 1459 nucleotides and has an open reading frame encoding a protein of 385 amino acids and a predicted molecular weight of 43kDa. At14a has a small domain that has sequence similarities to integrins from fungi, insects and humans. Transcripts of At14a are found in all Arabidopsis tissues examined, and when expressed as an epitope tagged fusion protein in transgenic plants, At14a localizes partly to the plasma membrane.