Cloning and Analysis of a cDNA Encoding Key Enzyme Gene(hmgr)of the MVA Pathway in Medicinal Plant Euphorbia pekinensis

Based on the design of degenerated oligonucleotides according to the conservative regions of eight 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-CoA reductases from six plants and total RNA extracted from Euphorbia pekinensis,a 458 bp fragment of hmgr was obtained using reverse transcription PCR strategy.Through sequence analysis by BlastP online,the resulting protein showed high homology to 3-hydroxy-3-methylgluta-ryl-CoA reductase,with 90% identification compared with Eucommia ulmoides(AAV54051),86% with Andrographis paniculata(AAP14352),86% with Picrorhiza kurrooa(ABC74565),92% with Hevea brasiliensis(AAU08214),87% with Gossypium barbadense(ABC71314)and 88% with Gentiana lutea(BAE92730).Deduced amino acid sequence were also analyzed by PROSITE,ClustalX and Phylogenic tree,and data present evidence for the existence of 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-CoA reductase in E.peki-nensis,which is the first report of the hmgr gene isolated from E.pekinensis.