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Isolation and Activity Analysis of a Seed-Abundant soyAP1 Gene Promoter from Soybean

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Abstract

The soybean aspartic proteinase gene soyAP1 has previously been shown to be expressed specifically in soybean seeds. To investigate the expression pattern and active cis-elements of the soyAP1 promoter, the 1,650-bp 5′-upstream genomic DNA fragment named PS-552 was isolated by PCR walking. Sequence analysis revealed that this fragment contains a series of motifs related to seed-specific promoters and some pollen-expressed elements. Stable expression in transgenic Arabidopsis thaliana showed that the PS-552 promoter can regulate beta-glucuronidase gene accumulation in mature seeds at much higher levels than other tissues, especially vegetative tissues, and exhibits similar activity to the 35S promoter in mature seeds. These results show that the PS-552 promoter is a highly active promoter controlling downstream gene expression, mainly in mature seeds. The 5′-end deletion studies of PS-552 showed that the cis-elements of CAAACAC, AACA, E-box, and CCAA play a role in increasing the seed-specific activity. The proportion of mature seed activity and flower activity was increased as the deletion fragment lengthened, indicating that seed cis-elements possibly lessen or suppress the effect of pollen-expressed elements, increasing the activity of PS-552 in mature seeds.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by a specific grant from the Ministry of Agriculture (no. 2008ZX08004-003) and the National Natural Sciences Foundation of China (grant no. 30971808).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Plant Science, Agricultural Division, Jilin University, Changchun, 130062, China

    Yan Zhao, Xiaowei Li, Ying Zhai, Qinglin Zhang, Dandan Qian & Qingyu Wang

  2. College of Life Science and Agroforestry, Qiqihaer University, Qiqihaer, 161006, Heilongjiang, China

    Yan Zhao & Shuli Shao

Authors
  1. Yan Zhao
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  2. Shuli Shao
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  3. Xiaowei Li
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  4. Ying Zhai
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  5. Qinglin Zhang
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  6. Dandan Qian
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  7. Qingyu Wang
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Correspondence to Qingyu Wang.

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Zhao, Y., Shao, S., Li, X. et al. Isolation and Activity Analysis of a Seed-Abundant soyAP1 Gene Promoter from Soybean. Plant Mol Biol Rep 30, 1400–1407 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11105-012-0441-7

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