Abstract

Cinnamyl alcohol dehydrogenase (CAD) catalyzes the reduction of cinnamaldehyde to ρ-coumaryl, coniferyl, and sinapyl alcohols during the last stage of lignin biosynthesis pathway. The CAD gene expression is believed to be important toward the phenotypic characteristics of plants. In the present study, a full-length CAD gene was successfully inferred from EST database (NcdbESTs) of Neolamarckia cadamba through a contig mapping approach. Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction was conducted to validate the identity of the isolated CAD gene. The full-length CAD gene, designated as NcCAD, is 1,240 bp long with a 1,086 bp open reading frame encoding a protein of 361 amino acids, a 68 bp 5’-UTR, and a 86 bp 3’-UTR. Phylogenetic analysis showed that NcCAD was grouped in the cluster containing both CAD and sinapyl alcohol dehydrogenase (SAD) genes, in which both genes are involved in lignin biosynthesis. This result also demonstrated that the NcCAD gene may pose intermediate characteristics of both CAD and SAD genes. This NcCAD gene can serve as a good candidate gene for further insight into the wood properties of N. cadamba through association genetics study.

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