Abstract

To enhance our exploitations in plant system of D-amino acids oxidizing enzymes (D-amino acid oxidases; DAAO), our efforts were made to unravel the relative expression patterns of maize DAAO transcript using basic and quantitative reverse transcription and polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) with template materials collected separately from three different organs of test plants grown under drought stress conditions. Relative expression analysis using 2^{Ct} values indicated that maize DAAO transcript is detectable in all samples, showing about 2.9 to 3.1 folds increase in stress-challenged leaf and root tissues. The results also revealed that the expression of maize DAAO in leaf tissues is prior to root tissues, reflecting the quick impression and response of leaf tissues to drought stress in comparison to roots. Our results may provide a basis and a new research gate to study the novel biological roles of DAAO gene product in plant system.

Key words: D-amino acid oxidase, drought, expression, maize, stress.