Isolating Full-Length SaAACT and SaHMGS Genes

The full-length cDNA sequence of SaAACT and SaHMGS genes was isolated by 5′ and 3′ rapid amplification of cDNA ends (RACE)-PCR with the SMARTer RACE cDNA Amplification Kit (Clontech, Palo Alto, CA, USA) according to the manufacturer’s protocol. Gene-specific primers for 3′ RACE-PCR were designed on the basis of the initial data of AACT and HMGS unigenes in the S. album transcriptome^{71 (link)}. Based on data from the partial SaAACT and SaHMGS sequence generated from 3′ RACE-PCR, gene-specific primers were designed for 5′ RACE-PCR to obtain the remaining sequences of SaAACT and SaHMGS. PCR products were purified by gel DNA purification kits (Tiangen, Beijing, China) and ligated into the pMD18-T vector (Takara Bio Inc., Dalian, China). Recombined plasmids were transformed into DH5α-competent E. coli cells (Takara Bio Inc., Dalian, China) and sequenced.