• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.319-323
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• 2004

Soluble latex protein fraction excreted from Euporbia lathyris laticifer was resolved by 10% SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis to identify distinctively displayed latex major protein bands including ELp65, ELp55, ELp43, ELp32 and ELp23. Among them, ELp65 was purified by ammonium sulfate precipitation, gel permeation chromatography and ion exchange chromatography. Its N-terminal amino acid sequencing revealed its homology to the leading region of mature peptide of tomato p69a subtilisin-like protease, suggesting a certain role involved in plant defense system. In the analysis of Southern blot hybridization using PCR-amplified tomato p69a probe DNA, E. lathyris genome was suggested to have a gene family consisting of 3-5 gene members putatively encoding subtilisin-like proteases.