Abstract: Plant aquaporins are water-selected-channels in plants and are involved in seed germination, cell elongation, stoma movement, fertilization and so on. Some plant aquaporins also play an important role in response to drought stress. In this paper the gene encoding the Tamarix albiflonum Aquaporin (AQP) was amplified by 5′rapid amplification of cDNA end (RACE) based on the sequence information obtained from the expressed sequence tag of subtractive hybridization library constructed under PEG6000 stress. The cDNA of the Tamarix albiflonum AQP gene is 1043 bp long, encoding a protein of 287 amino acids with a predicted molecular mass of 30.9KDa,has 6 transmembrane regions, and possessing the MIP family signal consensus sequence SGXHXNPAVT and the higher plant PIP highly conservative sequence GGGANXXXXGY and TGI/TNPARSL/ FGAAI/VI/VF/YN. A comparative molecular analysis of nucleotide sequence in NCBI databases showed that it shared 95% homology with the gene of Arabidopsis thaliana (MIP-C), with a theoretical isoelectric point of 8.84.

Key words: Tamarix albiflonum, plant aquaporin, gene cloning, sequence analysis