Molecular cloning of the Arabidopsis thaliana sedoheptulose-1,7-biphosphatase gene and expression studies in wheat and Arabidopsis thaliana.

We report here the isolation and nucleotide sequence of genomic clones encoding the chloroplast enzyme sedoheptulose-1,7-bisphosphatase (SBPase) from Arabidopsis thaliana. The coding region of this gene contains eight exons (72-76 bp) and seven introns (75-91 bp) and encodes a polypeptide of 393 amino acids. Unusually, the 5' non-coding region contains two additional AUG codons upstream of the translation initiation codon. A comparison of the deduced Arabidopsis and wheat SBPase polypeptide sequences reveals 78.6%, identity. Expression studies showed that the level of SBPase mRNA in Arabidopsis and wheat is regulated in a light-dependent manner and is also influenced by the developmental stage of the leaf. Although the Arabidopsis SBPase gene is present in a single copy, two hybridizing transcripts were detected in some tissues, suggesting the presence of alternate transcription start sites in the upstream region.