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The promoter of an A9 homolog from the conifer Cryptomeria japonica imparts male strobilus-dominant expression in transgenic trees

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GUS analysis in Cryptomeria japonica revealed that the CjMALE1 promoter is activated in the male strobilus of C. japonica.

Abstract

Toward the development of male sterile technology for Cryptomeria japonica, a male strobilus-dominant promoter of C. japonica was isolated. The CjMALE1 gene was isolated from a male strobilus-specific suppression subtractive hybridization (SSH) library, and the promoter was isolated by the TAIL-PCR method. To characterize the CjMALE1 promoter, β-glucuronidase (GUS)-fused genes were constructed and introduced into C. japonica using Agrobacterium tumefaciens. GUS expression from CjMALE1-2.5 K (2,718 bp fragment)::GUS C. japonica and CjMALE1-1 K (1,029 bp fragment)::GUS C. japonica was detected in the tapetum and microspore mother cells. These promoter fragments were comparably active in the pre-meiotic stage of the male strobilus of C. japonica. Our analysis showed that the 1,029 bp promoter had all the cis-elements necessary for male strobilus-dominant expression of CjMALE1. When CjMALE1-1 K::GUS was introduced into Arabidopsis, GUS expression was detected in the same spatiotemporal pattern as in C. japonica. These results suggest that the CjMALE1 promoter is subject to transcriptional regulatory systems consisting of cis- and trans-elements that have been highly conserved during evolution.

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to Ms. Maki Konnai (Forest Tree Breeding Center (FTBC), Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute (FFPRI), Japan) and to Ms. Tomoko Okuyama (FTBC, FFPRI, Japan) for their technical assistance. This research was supported in part by the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Research Council, Japan.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute, Forest Tree Breeding Center, 3809-1 Ishi, Juo, Hitachi, Ibaraki, 319-1301, Japan

    Manabu Kurita, Teiji Kondo & Toru Taniguchi

  2. Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute, Forest Bio-Research Center, 3809-1 Ishi, Juo, Hitachi, Ibaraki, 319-1301, Japan

    Manabu Kurita, Ken-ichi Konagaya, Katsuaki Ishii & Toru Taniguchi

  3. Faculty of Agriculture, Kyushu University, 6-10-1 Hakozaki, Higashi-ku, Fukuoka, 812-8581, Japan

    Atsushi Watanabe

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  1. Manabu Kurita
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  2. Ken-ichi Konagaya
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  4. Teiji Kondo
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Correspondence to Toru Taniguchi.

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Communicated by K. Toriyama.

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Kurita, M., Konagaya, Ki., Watanabe, A. et al. The promoter of an A9 homolog from the conifer Cryptomeria japonica imparts male strobilus-dominant expression in transgenic trees. Plant Cell Rep 32, 319–328 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00299-012-1365-2

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