Cloning And Physiological Function Of Sphingosine Kinase In Rice Research

Sphingosine kinase is a new family of lipid kinase, which has been implicated in a number of cellular responses, including stimulation of cell proliferation, inhibition of apoptosis. In plants, Sphingosine kinase is implicated in the ABA signal transduction. A rice cDNA fragment encoding a putative Sphingosine kinase (OsSphK, accession numerber: AC025296) was identified via cDNA microarray under abscisic acid(ABA) treatment. A 2274 bp cDNA was isolated by RT-PCR, and found to encode a putative 757-aa protein. RT-PCR indicated that OsSphK was constitutively expressed in various rice tissues and not regulated by treatments with abscisic acid (ABA). The physiological roles of OsSphK were studied through antisense transgenic approaches. Recombiriant protein were expressed in E.cloi.