Molecular cloning and expression analysis of 4-Hydroxyphenyl pyruvate dioxygenase gene fragment from Perilla frutescens

To obtain 4-Hydroxyphenyl pyruvate dioxygenase (HPPD) gene involved in the bypath of rosmarinic acid (RA) biosynthesis pathway from Perilla frutescens, we designed degenerate primers according to parallel analysis of the amino acid sequence of HPPD genes from other species and successfully cloned the fragment of HPPD gene by homology cloning method. The fragment of HPPD designated as PerHPPD -1 was 663 bp, encoded 221 amino acids. Sequence alignment revealed that the deduced amino acid sequence of PerHPPD -1 was 66.36, 77.93% identical to Salvia miltiorrhiza, Coleus blume. Phylogenetic tree analysis showed that PerHPPD -1 had closest relationship with Lamiaceae plants. The quantitative fluorescence Real-Time PCR analysis showed that the constitutive expression of PerHPPD-1 in leaf was much higher than that in stem and root. Further expression analysis indicated that the hormone, including Gibberellins, MeJA, ABA treatments could up-regulate the PerHPPD-1 level in leaves.