Isolation and characterization of cDNA clones encoding class I chitinase in suspension cultures of rice cell.

We have cloned and determined the nucleotide sequences of full-length cDNA clones for chitinase, CH6 and CH16, whose sizes were about 1.1 kb with signal peptides, from rice cell suspension cultures. Northern blot analysis with CH16 as a probe showed that the chitinase transcript reached maximum at 8 h after elicitor-treatment and their sizes were about 1.1 kb, demonstrating that these clones were induced by elicitor.