Superoxide dismutases (SOD) are metalloenzymes that convert O2- to H2O2. Rehmannia glutinosa is highly tolerant to paraquat-induced oxidative stress. The primary objective of this study was to characterize regulation of SOD gene expression in R. glutinosa in response to oxidative stresses and hormones. A full-length putative SOD clone (RgCu-ZnSOD1) was isolated from the leaf cDNA library of R. glutinosa using an expressed sequence tag clone as a probe. RgCu-ZnSOD1 cDNA is 777 bp in length and contains an open reading frame for a polypeptide consisted of 152 amino acid residues. The deduced amino acid sequence of the clone shows highest sequence similarity to the cytosolic Cu-ZnSODs. The two to three major bands with several minor ones on the Southern blots indicate that RgCu-ZnSOD1 is a member of a small multi-gene family. RgCuZnSOD1 mRNA was constitutively expressed in the leaf, flower and root. The expression of RgCu-ZnSOD1 mRNA was increased about 20% by wounding and paraquat, but decreased over 50% by ethylene and GA3. This result indicates that the RgCu-ZnSOD1 expression is regulated differentially by different stresses and phytohormones at the transcription level. The RgCu-ZnSOD1 sequence and information on its regulation will be useful in investigating the role of SOD in the paraquat tolerance of R. glutinosa.

• Myoung-Ryoul Park
• Sang-Soo Ryu
• Nam-Hee Yoo
• Chang-Yeon Yu
• Song-Joong Yun