Summary
Expression of the three chlorophyll a/b binding protein (cab) genes of Arabidopsis thaliana was studied in transformed tobacco tissues. For each cab gene, approximately 1000 bp of the promoter region plus a portion of the structural gene was inserted into a promoter-expression vector such that a translational fusion between the cab gene and the promoter-less chloramphenicol acetyltransferase (cat) gene was formed. The constructed molecules were introduced into either cultured tobacco cells or tobacco leaves and the promoter activity was monitored as chloramphenicol acetyltransferase activity. The light-grown tissues exhibited 1.5- to 60-fold greater promoter activity than did dark-grown tissues. Expression of the cab promoters was tissue specific: activities were much stronger in green leaves than other tissues. The cab promoters were almost equally active in transformed calli or shoots derived from leaves. However, in cultured tobacco cells, one promoter was two to three times stronger than the other two. The chimeric gene fusion, cab-cat, segregated in the F1 generation as a dominant Mendelian trait.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
An G (1985) High efficiency transformation of cultured tobacco cells. Plant Physiol 79: 568–570
An G (1986) Development of plant promoter expression vectors and their use for analysis of differential activity of nopaline synthase promoter in transformed tobacco cells. Plant Physiol 81: 86–91
An G (1987) Binary Ti vectors for plant transformation and promoter analysis. Methods Enzymol (in press)
An G, Ebert PR, Yi B-Y, Choi C-H (1986a) Both TATA box and upstream regions are required for the nopaline synthase promoter activity in transformed tobacco cells. Mol Gen Genet 203: 245–250
An G, Watson BD, Chiang CC (1986b) Transformation of tobacco, tomato, potato, and Arabidopsis thaliana using a binary Ti vector system. Plant Physiol 81: 301–305
Bennett MD, Smith JB (1976) Nuclear DNA amounts in angiosperms. Proc R Soc Lond [Biol] 274: 227–274
Cannon G, Heihorst S, Siedlecki J, Weissbach A (1985) Chloroplast DNA synthesis in light and dark grown cultured Nicotiana tabacum cells as determined by molecular hybridization. Plant Cell Rep 4: 41–45
Casadaban MJ, Cohen SN (1980) Analysis of gene control signals by DNA fusion and cloning in Escherichia coli. J Mol Biol 138: 179–207
Coruzzi G, Broglie R, Cashmore A, Chua N-H (1983) Nucleotide sequences of two pea cDNA clones encoding the small subunit of ribulose 1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase and the major chlorophyll a/b-binding thylakoid polypeptide. J Biol Chem 258: 1399–1402
De Block M, Herrera-Estrella L, Van Montagu M, Schell J, Zambryski P (1984) Expression of foreign genes in regenerated plants and in their progeny. EMBO J 3: 1681–1689
Ditta G, Stanfield S, Corbin D, Helinski DR (1980) Broad host range DNA cloning system for gram-negative bacteria: construction of a gene bank of Rhyzobium meliloti. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 77: 7347–7351
Dunsmuir P (1985) The petunia chlorophyll a/b binding protein genes: a comparison of cab genes from different gene families. Nucleic Acids Res 13: 2503–2518
Dunsmuir P, Smith SM, Bedbrook J (1983) The major chlorophyll a/b binding protein of petunia is composed of several polypeptides encoded by a number of distinct nuclear genes. J Mol Appl Genet 2: 285–300
Gorman CM, Moffat LF, Howard BH (1982) Recombinant genomes which express chloramphenicol acetyltransferase in mammalian cells. Mol Cell Biol 2: 1044–1051
Hoekema A, Hirsch PR, Hooykaas PJJ, Schilperoort RA (1983) A binary vector strategy based on separation of vir- and T-region of the Agrobacterium tumefaciens Ti-plasmid. Nature 303: 179–181
Horsch RB, Fraley RT, Rogers SG, Sanders PR, Lloyd A, Hoffmann N (1984) Inheritance of functional foreign genes in plants. Science 223: 496–498
Horsch RB, Fry JE, Hoffmann NL, Eichholtz D, Rogers SG, Fraley RT (1985) A simple and general method for transferring genes into plants. Science 227: 1229–1231
Karlin-Neumann GA, Kohorn BD, Thornber P, Tobin EM (1985) A chlorophyll a/b-protein encoded by a gene containing an intron with characteristic of a transposable element. J Mol Appl Genet 3: 45–61
Koncz C, Schell J (1986) The promoter of TL-DNA gene 5 controls the tissue-specific expression of chimeric genes carried by a novel type of Agrobacterium binary vector. Mol Gen Genet 204: 383–396
Lamppa GK, Morelli G, Chua N-H (1985a) Structure and developmental regulation of a wheat gene encoding the major chlorophyll a/b-binding polypeptide. Mol Cell Biol 5: 1370–1378
Lamppa GK, Nagy F, Chua N-H (1985b) Light-regulated and organ-specific expression of a wheat cab gene in transgenic tobacco. Nature 316: 750–752
Leutwiler LS, Hough-Evans BR, Meyerowitz EM (1984) The DNA of Arabidopsis thaliana. Mol Gen Genet 194: 15–23
Leutwiler LS, Meyerowitz EM, Tobin EM (1986) Structure and expression of three light-harvesting chlorophyll a/b binding protein genes in Arabidopsis thaliana. Nucleic Acids Res 14: 4951–4064
Meyerowitz EM, Pruitt RE (1985) Arabidopsis thaliana and plant molecular genetics. Science 229: 1214–1218
Ooms G, Bakker A, Molendijk L, Wullems GJ, Gordon MP, Nester EW, Schilperoort RA (1982) T-DNA organization in homogeneous and heterogeneous octopine-type crown gall tissues of Nicotiana tabacum. Cell 30: 489–597
Simpson J, Timko MP, Cashmore AR, Schell J, Van Montagu M, Herrera-Estrella L (1985) Light-inducible and tissue-specific expression of a chimeric gene under control of the 5′-flanking sequence of a pea chlorophyll a/b-binding protein gene. EMBO J 4: 2723–2729
Zambryski P, Holsters M, Kruger K, Depicker A, Schell J, Van Montagu M, Goodman HM (1980) Tumor DNA structure in plant cells transformed by A. tumefaciens. Science 209: 1385–1391
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
Communicated by R. Goldberg
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
An, G. Integrated regulation of the photosynthetic gene family from Arabidopsis thaliana in transformed tobacco cells. Mol Gen Genet 207, 210–216 (1987). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00331580
Received:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00331580