The light harvesting chlorophyll a/b-binding protein is one of key proteins in the transformation from light energy to chemical energy. An open reading frame coding precursor protein of cab gene was cloned from the first strand of bamboo cDNA through RT-PCR methods,and named as cab-PhE1 (cab gene 1 from Phyllostachys edulis EF207229). The sequence analysis showed that the deduced polypeptide was highly homologous to some other CAB proteins from monocotyledon,and the gene belonged to lhcb2 family. Tissue specific expression showed that cab-PhE1 expressed higher in leaf than sheath and stem. The prokaryotic expression vector of cab-PhE1 gene encoding the mature protein was constructed by subcloning the fragment into pET-23 a and was expressed in Escherichia coli induced by IPTG. The molecular weight of the induced protein was about 28 ku,approximate to that of the mature protein. This work is a key to the further research on in vitro reconstitution of light-harvesting Chl a/b complexes.
