Abstract: The Gastrodia Antifungal Protein GAFP - I was purified from topical corm of Tian Ma ( Gastrodi-a elata), which can strongly inhibit the mycelia growth of seprophytic fungi and plays an important role in the defence mechanism of plants to restrict and prevent the infection of the fungus Armillaria mellea. This paper reports the primary structure and the cDNA nucleotide sequence of GAFP - I. The N - terminal 7 amino acid sequence to be SDRLNSG - was determined by automatic sequencer and used for synthesizing a degenerated primer. The mRNA from the Gastrodia conn was amplified to be a specific cDNA of about 600 bp through a 3' - RACE experiment with the degenerated primer.

Key words: Gastrodia elata, Antifungal protein GAFP-I, cDNA cloning, Hydroxyamine cleavage