Abstract
In Arabidopsis thaliana, the induction of a dehydration-responsive gene, rd22, is mediated by abscisic acid (ABA) but the gene does not include any sequence corresponding to the consensus ABA-responsive element (ABRE), RYACGTGGYR, in its promoter region. The cis-regulatory region of the rd22 promoter was identified by monitoring the expression of β-glucuronidas (GUS) activity in leaves of transgenic tobacco plants transformed with chimeric gene fusions constructed between 5′-deleted promoters of rd22 and the coding region of the GUS reporter gene. A 67-bp nucleotide fragment corresponding to positions − 207 to − 141 of the rd22 promoter conferred responsiveness to dehydration and ABA on a non-responsive promoter. The 67-bp fragment contains the sequences of the recognition sites for some transcription factors, such as MYC, MYB, and GT-1. The fact that accumulation of rd22 mRNA requires protein synthesis raises the possibility that the expression of rd22 might be regulated by one of these trans-acting protein factors whose de novo synthesis is induced by dehydration or ABA. Although the structure of the RD22 protein is very similar to that of a non-storage seed protein, USP, of Vicia faba, the expression of the GUS gene driven by the rd22 promoter in non-stressed transgenic Arabidopsis plants was found mainly in flowers and bolted stems rather than in seeds.
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Communicated by R. G. Herrmann
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Iwasaki, T., Yamaguchi-Shinozaki, K. & Shinozaki, K. Identification of a cis-regulatory region of a gene in Arabidopsis thaliana whose induction by dehydration is mediated by abscisic acid and requires protein synthesis. Molec. Gen. Genet. 247, 391–398 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00293139
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00293139