[Cloning and analysis of a powdery mildew responsive gene CmSAMDC from Cucumis melo L.]

In order to investigate the effect of S-adenosylmethionine decarboxylase (SAMDC) gene in melon resistance to powdery mildew, according to the previous results of EST sequences from cDNA-AFLP library and the melon genome sequence data, the SAMDC gene was isolated from Chinese wild melon clone 'Yuntian930' by RT-PCR and designated as CmSAMDC (GenBank Accession No. KF151861). The mORF (main open reading frame) was 1 095 bp encoding 364 amino acids with a molecular mass of 40 kDa. The predicted protein sequence showed high similarity with Cucumis sativus and Citrofortunella microcarpa. The SDS-PAGE showed that the expression protein was a fusion protein with the molecular weight of 40 kDa, which perfectly matched the mass calculated from the amino acid sequence. Quantitative real-time PCR analysis indicated that the expression level of CmSAMDC reached a maximum at 48 hpi (hours post inoculation) that over 7-fold to 0 hpi, and the expression of CmSAMDC was also detected in tendril, root, leaf and stem. These results indicate that CmSAMDC gene may play protective roles in melon resistance to powdery mildew infection.