Short duplication in a cDNA clone of the rbcL gene from Picea abies.

The plastidic rbcL gene encodes the LSU of Rubisco (EC 4.1.1.39), the enzyme that catalyzes CO, fixation during photosynthesis (Hallick and Bottomley, 1983). In higher plants the enzyme structure is commonly given as a hexadecameric structure composed of eight LSUs and eight small subunits. Nucleotide sequence data from the rbcL gene have been used extensively in studies of plant phylogeny and molecular evolution (Morden and Golden, 1991; Pasternak and Glick, 1992). To investigate the expression of the rbcL gene in damaged and undamaged Norway spruce trees (Picea abies), we have isolated a rbcL cDNA clone via reverse transcriptasePCR (Table I). Using the proofreading ability of the DNA poly…