Identification of a root-specific glycosyltransferase from Arabidopsis and characterization of its promoter

摘要

A set of Ds-element enhancer trap lines of Arabidopsis thaliana was generated and screened for expression patterns leading to the identification of a line that showed root-specific expression of the bacterial uidA reporter gene encoding β-glucuronidase (GUS). The insertion of the Ds element was found to be immediately downstream to a glycosyltransferase gene Atlg73160. Analysis of Atlg73160 expression showed that it is highly root-specific. Isolation and characterization of the upstream region of the Atlg73160 gene led to the definition of a 218 bp fragment that is sufficient to confer root-specific expression. Sequence analysis revealed that several regulatory elements were implicated in expression in root tissue. The promoter identified and characterized in this study has the potential to be applied in crop biotechnology for directing the root-specific expression of transgenes.