A versatile promoter for the expression of proteins in glandular and non-glandular trichomes from a variety of plants

Gloria Gutiérrez-Alcalá (1) , Leticia Calo (1) , Florence Gros (2) , Jean-Claude Caissard (2) , Cecilia Gotor (1) , Luis C. Romero (1)

1 IBVF - Instituto de Bioquimica Vegetal y Fotosintesis
2 LBVPAM - Laboratoire de Biotechnologies Végétales appliquées aux Plantes Aromatiques et Médicinales

We have isolated a DNA regulatory fragment from the promoter region of the OASA1 gene, encoding the cytosolic O-acetylserine(thiol)lyase enzyme that is highly expressed in Arabidopsis thaliana trichomes. This DNA fragment has been named as ATP fragment and comprises 1435 bp of the genomic region upstream of the OASA1 gene and 375 bp of the transcriptional initiation start site, containing the first intron of the gene. The ATP fragment, fused to the green fluorescent protein (GFP) and beta-glucuronidase (GUS) reporter genes, is able to drive high-level gene expression in A. thaliana trichomes. Deletion analysis of the ATP fragment determined that the region from –266 to –66 contains regulatory elements required for trichome expression. In addition, the region from +112 to +375, comprising the first intronic region of the gene, is also essential for trichome gene expression. Expression of the full-length ATP fragment in tobacco and peppermint shows that this fragment is also able to drive expression in glandular trichomes and suggests additional biotechnological applications for this promoter.

Keywords: Arabidopsis; tobacco; peppermint; confocal microscopy

Domains: Life Sciences [q-bio]; Biochemistry, Molecular Biology; Molecular biology; Life Sciences [q-bio]; Biotechnology

Gloria Gutiérrez-Alcalá, Leticia Calo, Florence Gros, Jean-Claude Caissard, Cecilia Gotor, et al.. A versatile promoter for the expression of proteins in glandular and non-glandular trichomes from a variety of plants. Journal of Experimental Botany, 2005, 56 (419), pp.2487-2494. ⟨10.1093/jxb/eri241⟩. ⟨ujm-00080737⟩