Abstract：OrCrZFl is a novel cold responsive gene screened from ‘Chaling’ common wild rice (CWR) based on the global genome expression profiling of ‘Chaling’ CWR subjected to cold stress. The sequence of its cDNA containing a complete ORF (open reading frame) was cloned by RTPCR by using ‘Chaling’ CWR as material. Sequence analysis showed that the cDNA of the gene codes a protein of 492 amino acid residues with M.W.=51.895 kD and pI=6.21. Performing Blastp in GenBank showed that the sequence of its deduced amino acids was 98.37% identical with that of a protein (zinc finger protein CONSTANSLIKE 14, GenBank accession：XP_015649825.1) encoded by Os08g0536300 located at chromosome 8 of japonica rice Nipponbare, the sequence of its deduced amino acids from 145th to 492nd(the last) was 96.55% identical with that of hypothetical protein OsI_30045 of indica rice 9311, and the sequence of its deduced amino acids from 16th to 492nd (the last) was 67.35%〖KG-*3〗~72.47% identical with those of similar proteins (zinc finger protein CONSTANSLIKE 14 or zinc finger protein CONSTANSLIKE 15) of Setaria italica, Sorghum bicolor, Zea mays, Aegilops tauschii, and Panicum hallii. Analysis of the putative promoter region for candidate ciselements by using PlantCARE software identified some matches related to cold stress or other stresses or stress phytohormone responses. Based on the above results, we thought that OrCrZFl is a novel candidate cold tolerance gene in wild rice.
