Abstract: A fragment of 580 bp was amplified by PCR from the genomic DNA of tree peony
（Paeonia suffruticosa Andrews.‘Luoyanghong’）using the degenerate oligoncleotide primers. The
amplicons were recovered，purified and cloned. Positive clones were identified and sequenced. Finally，
32 different sequences of reverse transcriptase from tree peony‘Luoyanghong’LINE retrotransposons
were obtained. The length of the nucleotide sequences varied from 547 to 593 bp. The homology ranged
from 25.7% to 94.2% by Clustal W and the variations were characterized by point mutation. Four clusters
were identified with high heterogeneity through phylogenic analysis of their nucleotide sequences. Family
Ⅰand Ⅲ，respectively accounted for 50% and 28% of the total number of clones. There is a very conservative point in the 18th amino acid sequence of glycine（Gly）in the translated sequence，at the same
time，a conservative point in 138th amino acid sequence of lysine（Lys）. More termination codon mutation
and frameshift mutations were presented in 32 sequences. A phylogenic tree was constructed based on the
amino acid sequences from other species ， indicating that the RT sequences from Peony LINE
retrotransposons have certain homology with other species.

Key words: tree peony, non-LTR retrotranspson, reverse transcriptase