Cancer Susceptibility Candidate 1 (CASC1)

This sesquiterpene cyclase, termed as CASC2 showing 77% amino acid identity with the previously cloned sesquiterpene cyclase CASC1, was composed of 560 amino acids with a calculated molecular mass of 64,907. The mRNA expression pattern of CASC2 was very similar to that of CASC1 during the time course of UV-C irradiated leaves of pepper on RNA blot analysis by using each specific probe.

The heterologous expression in Escherichia coli using the CASC2 full length failed; however the chimeric construct of CASC2 in which the amino terminal 164 amino acid substituted by the equivalent portion of either CASC1 or tobacco sesquiterpene cyclase was capable of expressing the functional sesquiterpene cyclase activities.