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Investigating Triticeae anther gene promoter activity in transgenic Brachypodium distachyon

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Abstract

Main conclusion

In this report, we demonstrate that Brachypodium distachyon could serve as a relatively high throughput in planta functional assay system for Triticeae anther-specific gene promoters.

There remains a vast gap in our knowledge of the promoter cis-acting elements responsible for the transcriptional regulation of Triticeae anther-specific genes. In an attempt to identify conserved cis-elements, 14 pollen-specific and 8 tapetum-specific Triticeae putative promoter sequences were analyzed using different promoter sequence analysis tools. Several cis-elements were found to be enriched in these sequences and their possible role in gene expression regulation in the anther is discussed. Despite the fact that potential cis-acting elements can be identified within putative promoter sequence datasets, determining whether particular promoter sequences can in fact direct proper tissue-specific and developmental gene expression still needs to be confirmed via functional assays preferably performed in closely related plants. Transgenic functional assays with Triticeae species remain challenging and Brachypodium distachyon may represent a suitable alternative. The promoters of the triticale pollen-specific genes group 3 pollen allergen (PAL3) and group 4 pollen allergen (PAL4), as well as the tapetum-specific genes chalcone synthase-like 1 (CHSL1), from wheat and cysteine-rich protein 1 (CRP1) from triticale were fused to the green fluorescent protein gene (GFP) and analyzed in transgenic Brachypodium. This report demonstrates that this model species could serve to accelerate the functional analysis of Triticeae anther-specific gene promoters.

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Acknowledgements

We wish to thank Dr. John Vogel (USDA-ARS, Albany, NY, USA) for pOL001. We also acknowledge the support of the AAFC Agricultural Bioproducts Innovation Program and AAFC/NSERC Visiting Fellowships program (MAZ, SJBO, and SW).

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  1. Stephen J. B. O’Leary

    Present address: National Research Council of Canada, Aquatic and Crop Resource Development, 1411 Oxford Street, Halifax, NS, B3H 3Z1, Canada

  2. Shaobo Wu

    Present address: Beijing YouAn Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing Institute of Hepatology, No. 8 Xi Tou Tiao, You An Men Wai, Fengtai District, Beijing, 100069, People’s Republic of China

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Ottawa Research and Development Centre, 960 Carling Avenue, Ottawa, ON, K1A 0C6, Canada

    Mohsin A. Zaidi, Stephen J. B. O’Leary, Shaobo Wu, Denise Chabot, Steve Gleddie & Laurian S. Robert

  2. Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Lethbridge Research and Development Centre, Lethbridge, AB, T1J 4B1, Canada

    André Laroche & François Eudes

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  1. Mohsin A. Zaidi
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Zaidi, M.A., O’Leary, S.J.B., Wu, S. et al. Investigating Triticeae anther gene promoter activity in transgenic Brachypodium distachyon . Planta 245, 385–396 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00425-016-2612-5

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