ζ-carotene Desatura (ZDS) is one of the rate-limiting enzymes in the carotenoids biosynthetic pathway. The ZDS gene named as FaZDS was cloned from strawberry (Fragaria ananassa Duchesne) fruit using RT-PCR and RACE techniques. The results showed that the length of FaZDS cDNA was 2148 bp with an open reading frame of 1710 bp, which encoded a polypeptide of 569 amino acids. Homology analysis showed that the deduced ZDS protein was highly homologous to those from other species. Phylogenetic analysis also indicated that ZDS in strawberry was close to apple. Prokaryotic expression showed that recombinant FaZDS had highly expression in E. coli BL21. The FaZDS could express in flower, fruit and leaf by semi-quantitative RT-PCR analysis, with the order as flower > red fruit > pink fruit > white fruit > green fruit > leaf.
