Cloning and expression analysis of CRY2 gene in Sorghum bicolor.

CRY2 is the apoprotein of cryptochrome 2 and CRY2 cDNA has been cloned from Sorghum bicolor in this study. The results of sequence analysis shows that it contains a complete open reading frame encoding a predicted protein of 690 amino acids sharing 87% identity with the CRY2 of rice, but only 45.5% with that of Arabidopsis and 57% with that of tomato. The DNA sequence of sorghum CRY2 contains three introns and four exons. RT-PCR results show that CRY2 has been transcribed in root, leaf and mesocotyl in sorghum seedlings. CRY2 protein has been shown by Western blot analysis to be present in mesocotyl, leaf and root, and to be accumulated in the dark and to be degraded under blue light.