Repeated sequences from the Arabidopsis thaliana genome function as enhancers in transgenic tobacco

A structurally novel salt-regulated promoter of duplicated carbonic anhydrase gene 1 from Dunaliella salina

It has been demonstrated that the duplicated carbonic anhydrase is induced by salt in the Dunaliella salina (D. salina) and duplicated carbonic anhydrase 1 (DCA1) is a member of carbonic anhydrase family. The purpose of this study was to identify whether both the DCA1 gene and its promoter from D. salina are salt-inducible. In this study, the results of real time RT-PCR showed that the transcripts of DCA1 were induced by gradient concentration of sodium chloride. Subsequently, a structurally novel promoter containing highly repeated GT/AC sequences of the DCA1 gene was isolated, which was able to drive a stable expression of the foreign bar gene in transformed cells of D. salina, and the gradient concentrations of sodium chloride in media paralleled regulations in the levels of both proteins and mRNA of the bar gene driven by the DCA1 promoter. Furthermore, analysis of GUS activities revealed that the salt-inducible expression of the external gus gene was regulated by the promoter fragments containing highly repeated GT sequences, but not by the promoter fragments deleting highly repeated GT sequences. The findings above-mentioned suggest that the highly repeated GT sequence in the DCA1 promoter is involved in the salt-inducible regulation in D. salina and may be a novel salt-inducible element.

Rice repetitive DNA sequence RRD3: a plant promoter and its application to RNA interference

Previously, a moderately repetitive DNA sequence (RRD3) was cloned from rice (Oryza sativa L.) by DNA renaturation kinetics. Sequence analysis revealed several conserved promoter motifs, including four TATA-boxes and a CAAT-box, and promoter activity was shown in Escherichia coli and mammalian expression systems. Here, we inserted the RRD3 fragment into the plant promoter-capture vector, pCAMBIA1391Z, and examined whether the RRD3 fragment has promoter activity in plants. Transgenic tobacco and rice calli both showed beta-glucuronidase (GUS) activity, indicating that RRD3 can act as a promoter in both monocot and dicot plants. Based on the promoter characteristic of RRD3, we designed a plant universal binary vector, pCRiRRD3, which is suitable for performing researches on plant RNA interference. This vector has two multiple cloning sites to facilitate sense and antisense cloning of the target sequence, separated by an intron fragment of 200 bp. The efficiency of the vector for gene silencing was assayed by histochemical and quantitative fluorometric GUS assays in transgenic tobacco. These research results suggested that this plant RNAi vector pCRiRRD3 can effectively perform gene silencing researches on both monocot and dicot plants.