<Preliminary>Two Stilbene Synthase Genes from Japanese Red Pine (Pinus densiflora)

Abstract

Stilbene synthase gene (sts) was efficiently amplified by PCR from genomic DNA of Japanese red pine (Pinus densiflora). We found that the PCR product is a mixture of, at least, two sts genes. Both of the sts genes are quite similar in their sequences but are different in length of their introns. They carried respective active sites of the enzyme and expressed simultaneously in the roots but not in the hypocotyls. Together with those findings described in the text, we concluded that the two sts genes characterized here are isogenes, but not allogene nor pseudogene.