Cloning and sequence analysis of tomato cpDNA fragments: towards developing homologous chloroplast transformation vectors

Abstract

With the view of developing chloroplast transformation vectors based on homologous targeting regions for tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum L.), plastid DNA fragments of tomato cv. IAC-Santa Clara were cloned and analyzed. Isolation and cloning of PstI/SalI chloroplast fragments into the pBlueScript vectors yielded the plasmids pIJB1 and pIJB2 with cpDNA fragments of 8.6 kb and 6.4 kb, respectively. DNA sequencing and computer analyses revealed that the tomato sequences cloned display from 93 to 100 % of identity to the respective fragments in tobacco, which is more pronounced in coding regions. The intergenic spacers are somewhat less conserved suggesting that evolutionary divergences occurred mainly in these putative non-coding regions. The most remarkable difference found is a 437 bp sequence present in tobacco chloroplast genome in the intergenic region of the genes trnE and trnT but completely absent in the tomato chloroplast DNA. Analysis of restriction enzyme digestion patterns revealed several unique restriction sites in the intergenic spacer regions suggesting potential utility of these sequences in species-specific vector construction for tomato chloroplast transformation.