Molecular cloning and sequencing of a cDNA for plant calmodulin: signal-induced changes in the expression of calmodulin.

A cDNA clone (pPCM-1) for plant calmodulin was isolated by screening a potato stolon tip cDNA library with a chicken calmodulin cDNA. Nucleotide sequence analysis of pPCM-1 revealed that it contained 80 base pairs of 5' untranslated region, the entire coding region, and 376 base pairs of 3' untranslated region. Comparison of the nucleotide sequence of coding regions of potato and chicken calmodulin mRNA showed 78% homology. Comparison of the predicted amino acid sequence of potato calmodulin with other known calmodulin sequences indicated a high degree of homology with a few exceptions. Three changes in the amino acid sequence were found to be unique to the potato calmodulin sequence. In our earlier studies we showed the involvement of calcium and calmodulin in potato tuberization. The pPCM-1 clone was used as a probe to study the expression of calmodulin mRNA during tuberization and to monitor calmodulin mRNA level in various parts of the potato plant. Stolon tips showed the highest levels of calmodulin mRNA, suggesting a role for calmodulin in the tuberization process. In addition, pPCM-1 was used to investigate the effect of auxin and light on calmodulin gene expression in auxin-responsive strawberry fruit and light-responsive Merit corn roots, respectively. Both auxin and light signals were found to increase the level of mRNA for calmodulin. These results suggest that the altered calmodulin gene expression could be one of the molecular events involved in the signal transduction process in plants.