Cloning of full-length cDNAs and sequence analysis of DGAT1 gene from Camellia oleifera

Diacylglycerol acyltransferase is the only rate-limiting enzyme that catalyzes the final step in TAG(Kennedy) biosynthesis.Degenerate primers designed from the conservative domain of Diacylglycerol acyltransferase 1(DGAT1) in plants were used to amplify the DGAT1 fragments from cDNA of Camellia oleifera by RT-PCR and RACE technology.The results show that this gene was 2 046 bp in length,and it had an open reading frame of 1548 bp and 229 bp 3' UTR and 269 bp 5' UTR,its encoding 515 aminoacids;thus the gene was named co-DGAT1.It had the typical conserved domains of DGAT1 and showed high homology with those of other plant species.