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Seed-specific expression of sesame microsomal oleic acid desaturase is controlled by combinatorial properties between negative cis-regulatory elements in the SeFAD2 promoter and enhancers in the 5′-UTR intron

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Abstract

The regulation of genes involved in primary lipid metabolism in plants is much less well understood than that in many other pathways in plant biology. In the investigation reported here, we have characterized transcriptional regulatory mechanisms controlling seed-specific FAD2 expression in sesame (Sesamum indicum). FAD2 codes for extra-plastidial FAD2 desaturase, which catalyzes the conversion of oleic acid to linoleic acid. Promoter analysis of the sesame FAD2 gene (SeFAD2) using the β-glucuronidase (GUS) reporter system demonstrated that the − 660 to − 180 promoter region functions as a negative cis-element in the seed-specific expression of the SeFAD2 gene. Sesame and Arabidopsis FAD2 genes harbor one large intron within their 5′-untranslated region. These introns conferred up to 100-fold enhancement of GUS expression in transgenic Arabidopsis tissues as compared with intron-less controls. Prerequisite cis-elements for the SeFAD2 intron-mediated enhancement of gene expression and the promoter-like activity of SeFAD2 intron were identified. SeFAD2 transcripts were induced by abscisic acid (ABA) in developing sesame seeds, and the − 660 to − 548 and − 179 to − 53 regions in the SeFAD2 promoter were implicated in ABA-responsive signaling. Theses observations indicate that an intron-mediated regulatory mechanism is involved in controlling not only the seed-specific expression of the SeFAD2 gene but also the expression of plant FAD2 genes, which are essential for the synthesis of polyunsaturated fatty acids.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by grants from the BioGreen 21 Program funded by the Rural Development Administration, Republic of Korea, and the Agricultural Plant Stress Research Center (#R11-2001-0920301-0) of the Korea Science and Engineering Foundation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, Korea University, Seoul, 136-701, South Korea

    Mi Jung Kim, Heeja Kim & Jeong Sheop Shin

  2. Department of Biotechnology, Dong-A University, Pusan, 604-714, South Korea

    Chung-Han Chung

  3. Department of Plant Biology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, 48824, USA

    John B. Ohlrogge

  4. Department of Plant Biotechnology and Agricultural Plant Stress Research Center, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Chonnam National University, Gwangju, 500-757, South Korea

    Mi Chung Suh

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  1. Mi Jung Kim
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  2. Heeja Kim
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Correspondence to Mi Chung Suh.

Additional information

Communicated by H. Ronne

The nucleotide sequence of the microsomal oleic acid desaturase (FAD2) gene from Sesamum indicum reported here has been registered in the GenBankTM/EBI Data Bank under accession number AY770501.

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Kim, M.J., Kim, H., Shin, J.S. et al. Seed-specific expression of sesame microsomal oleic acid desaturase is controlled by combinatorial properties between negative cis-regulatory elements in the SeFAD2 promoter and enhancers in the 5′-UTR intron. Mol Genet Genomics 276, 351–368 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00438-006-0148-2

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