Abstract：Group 3 later embryogenesis abundant proteins(LEA3),present in abundance in seeds during the late stages of development,induced by exogenous abscisic acid(ABA),and associated with drought tolerance.According to high conservative amino acids of reported LEA3 in Gramineae,degenerate primers were designed and a special DNA fragment was obtained from Zizania caduciflora by RT-PCR.Then based on the obtained sequence,some new primers were designed, and two terminals of lea3 gene were cloned by 3′RACE and 5′RACE respectively.Splicing the fragments of sequence,the full length cDNA sequence was obtained which indicated that open reading frame region of this gene was 666 bp,coded 221 amino acid,including 2 characteristic motif of lea3 gene only.Through comparing with the reported lea3 genes sequences,we found that Zizania caduciflora shared the identity with Oryza sativa,Hordeumvulgare,Triticum aestivum,Bromus inermis and Zea mays as 51.2 %,41.0 %,41.1 %,42.0 % and 40.5 %,respectively.It was concluded that Zizania caduciflora lea3 gene had genetic characteristics similar with all species and it could provide reference for functional research.At present,this nucleotide sequence data are deposited in GenBank databases under the accession number GQ494017.
