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Cestrum yellow leaf curling virus (CmYLCV) promoter: a new strong constitutive promoter for heterologous gene expression in a wide variety of crops

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Abstract

Appropriately regulated gene expression requires a suitable promoter. A number of promoters have been isolated and shown to be functional in plants, but only a few of them activate transcription of transgenes at high levels constitutively. We report here the cloning and characterization of a novel, constitutively expressed promoter isolated from Cestrum yellow leaf curling virus (CmYLCV), a double-stranded DNA plant pararetrovirus belonging to the Caulimoviridae family. The CmYLCV promoter is highly active in callus, meristems and vegetative and reproductive tissues in Arabidopsis thaliana, Nicotiana tabacum, Lycopersicon esculentum,Zea mays and Oryza sativa. Furthermore, the level of expression is comparable to, or higher than, that from the CaMV 35S, the `super-promoter' or the maize ubiquitin 1 promoters, three frequently used promoters in agricultural biotechnology. The heritable, strong and constitutive activity in both monocotyledonous and dicotyledonous plants, combined with the extremely narrow CmYLCV host range, makes the CmYLCV promoter an attractive tool for regulating transgene expression in a wide variety of plant species.

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Author notes

  1. Thomas Hohn

    Present address: Istituto di Virologia Vegetale-CNR, via Amendola 165/A, Bari, Italy

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Friedrich Miescher Institute, Maulbeerstrasse 66, 4058, Basel, Switzerland

    Livia Stavolone, Sandra Pauli & Thomas Hohn

  2. Istituto di Virologia Vegetale-CNR, via Amendola 165/A, Bari, Italy

    Livia Stavolone

  3. Syngenta Biotechnology, Inc., 3054 Cornwallis Road, Research Triangle Park, NC, 27709, USA

    Maria Kononova, Steve Milligan & Kay Lawton

  4. Istituto Patologia Vegetale, Università di Napoli, 80055, Portici (NA), Italy

    Antonio Ragozzino

  5. Syngenta, Enkhuizen, Netherlands

    Peter de Haan

  6. Phytovation B.V., Wassenaarseweg 72, 2333 AL, Leiden, Netherlands

    Peter de Haan

  7. Rosetta Inpharmatics, LCC 12040, 115th Avenue NE, Kirkland, WA, 98034, USA

    Steve Milligan

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  1. Livia Stavolone
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  2. Maria Kononova
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  3. Sandra Pauli
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  4. Antonio Ragozzino
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  8. Thomas Hohn
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Correspondence to Livia Stavolone.

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Stavolone, L., Kononova, M., Pauli, S. et al. Cestrum yellow leaf curling virus (CmYLCV) promoter: a new strong constitutive promoter for heterologous gene expression in a wide variety of crops. Plant Mol Biol 53, 703–713 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1023/B:PLAN.0000019110.95420.bb

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/B:PLAN.0000019110.95420.bb

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