论文部分内容阅读
Cystatin is a group of small proteins and known to inhibit the activities of cysteine proteases in C1A and C13 peptidase families in plants.Cystatin family genes have only been well-characterized recently in a few plant species such as H.vulgare and N.tabacum,which show their critical roles in programmed cell death and responses to biotic stresses.Up to now,little is known about cystatin family genes and their role in Oryza sativa,a model plant for cereal biology study.Here,we identified 11 cystatin genes in rice genome.Comprehensive expression profile analysis reveals that cystatin family genes in rice display diverse expression pattern.They are temporally regulated at different developmental stages during the process of seed production and germination.