The complementary DNA (cDNA) amplified fragment length polymorphism technique was used to isolate transcript-derived fragments corresponding to genes involved in the flowering of tea plant. Comparative sequence analysis of an approximately 300 bp differential fragment amplified by primer combination E11M11 revealed 80%-84% similarity to the corresponding part of an α-tubulin gene of other species. The complete cDNA sequence of this α-tubulin was cloned by the rapid amplification of cDNA ends technique; its full length is 1537 bp and contains an open reading frame of 450 amino acid residues with two Nglycosylation sites and four protein kinase C phosphorylation sites. The deduced amino acid sequences did show significant homology to the α-tubulin from other plants that has been reported to be a pollen-specific protein and could be correlated with plant cytoplasm-nucleus-interacted male sterility. We named this complete cDNA Tual. The nucleotide and amino acid sequence data of Tual have been recorded in the GenBank sequence database with the accession No. DQ340766. This Tual gene was cloned into the pET-32a expression system and expressed in Escherichia coli BL21trxB(DE3). The molecular weight of expressed protein was deduced to be approximately 49 kDa. Weste blot analysis was used to identify the temporal expression of Tual in tea plant. Further studies of the effect of Tual protein on pollen tube growth indicated the Tual solution obviously promoted the growth of tea pollen tube.