Regulatory elements within the agropine synthase promoter of T-DNA

Enhancement of reproductive heat tolerance in plants

Comparison of average crop yields with reported record yields has shown that major crops exhibit annual average yields three- to seven-fold lower than record yields because of unfavorable environments. The current study investigated the enhancement of pollen heat tolerance through expressing an Arabidopsis thaliana heat shock protein 101 (AtHSP101) that is not normally expressed in pollen but reported to play a crucial role in vegetative thermotolerance. The AtHSP101 construct under the control of the constitutive ocs/mas 'superpromoter' was transformed into cotton Coker 312 and tobacco SRI lines via Agrobacterium mediated transformation. Thermotolerance of pollen was evaluated by in vitro pollen germination studies. Comparing with those of wild type and transgenic null lines, pollen from AtHSP101 transgenic tobacco and cotton lines exhibited significantly higher germination rate and much greater pollen tube elongation under elevated temperatures or after a heat exposure. In addition, significant increases in boll set and seed numbers were also observed in transgenic cotton lines exposed to elevated day and night temperatures in both greenhouse and field studies. The results of this study suggest that enhancing heat tolerance of reproductive tissues in plant holds promise in the development of crops with improved yield production and yield sustainability in unfavorable environments.

A T-DNA gene required for agropine biosynthesis by transformed plants is functionally and evolutionarily related to a Ti plasmid gene required for catabolism of agropine by Agrobacterium strains

The mechanisms that ensure that Ti plasmid T-DNA genes encoding proteins involved in the biosynthesis of opines in crown gall tumors are always matched by Ti plasmid genes conferring the ability to catabolize that set of opines on the inducing Agrobacterium strains are unknown. The pathway for the biosynthesis of the opine agropine is thought to require an enzyme, mannopine cyclase, coded for by the ags gene located in the T(R) region of octopine-type Ti plasmids. Extracts prepared from agropine-type tumors contained an activity that cyclized mannopine to agropine. Tumor cells containing a T region in which ags was mutated lacked this activity and did not contain agropine. Expression of ags from the lac promoter conferred mannopine-lactonizing activity on Escherichia coli. Agrobacterium tumefaciens strains harboring an octopine-type Ti plasmid exhibit a similar activity which is not coded for by ags. Analysis of the DNA sequence of the gene encoding this activity, called agcA, showed it to be about 60% identical to T-DNA ags genes. Relatedness decreased abruptly in the 5' and 3' untranslated regions of the genes. ags is preceded by a promoter that functions only in the plant. Expression analysis showed that agcA also is preceded by its own promoter, which is active in the bacterium. Translation of agcA yielded a protein of about 45 kDa, consistent with the size predicted from the DNA sequence. Antibodies raised against the agcA product cross-reacted with the anabolic enzyme. These results indicate that the agropine system arose by a duplication of a progenitor gene, one copy of which became associated with the T-DNA and the other copy of which remained associated with the bacterium.

Site-directed mutagenesis of the enhancer region of the 780 gene promoter of T-DNA

Potential regulatory sequences within the enhancer-like region of the 780 gene promoter (Agrobacterium tumefaciens T-DNA) were identified by site-directed mutagenesis. Transcriptional activity of the mutated promoter was analyzed by S1 nuclease mapping of RNA from crown gall tumors of sunflower incited using a T-DNA-based vector. Variability in expression levels were minimized by the use of an internal reference gene and the pooling of at least 200 tumors per construct tested. This approach identified numerous sequences that influence transcriptional activity in either a positive or negative manner. Eight regions of positive influence and three of negative were identified from analysis of those mutations that exhibited low variability in expression (P < 0.005) and affected activity by at least 20%.

Multiple regions of a divergent promoter control the expression of the Agrobacterium rhizogenes aux1 and aux2 plant oncogenes

The two auxin biosynthesis genes, aux1 and aux2 of Agrobacterium rhizogenes strain A4, are located on opposite DNA strands with a short integenic region (394 bp) between their coding sequences. A functional analysis of this divergent promoter is presented. The transcription initiation sites of the two aux genes were determined and regions important for promoter activity were identified by deletion and transient expression analyses in tobacco protoplasts. The promoter activity of the aux intergenic region was demonstrated. A strong enhancer element contained within an 84 bp promoter fragment was identified. Far upstream regions were shown to have negative effects on the promoter activity of the short intergenic region. Interactions between positive elements in the intergenic region and negative effects of the upstream sequences may be the basis of strict control of the auxin biosynthesis necessary for the induction and maintenance of hairy root growth.