Abstract
The engineering of stomatal activity under water deficit through guard cell-specific gene regulation is an effective approach to improve drought tolerance of crops but it requires an appropriate promoter(s) inducible by water deficit in guard cells. We report that a chimeric promoter can induce guard cell-specific gene expression under water deficit. A chimeric promoter, p4xKST82-rd29B, was constructed using a tetramer of the 82 bp guard cell-specific regulatory region of potato KST1 promoter (4xKST82) and Arabidopsis dehydration-responsive rd29B promoter. Transgenic tobacco plants carrying p4xKST82-rd29B:mGFP-GUS exhibited GUS expression in response to water deficit. GUS enzyme activity of p4xKST82-rd29B:mGFP-GUS transgenic plants increased ~300 % by polyethylene glycol treatment compared to that of control plant but not by abscisic acid (ABA), indicating that the p4xKST82-rd29B chimeric promoter can be used to induce the guard cell-specific expression of genes of interest in response to water deficit in an ABA-independent manner.
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Acknowledgments
We are most grateful to Dr. JC Jang for providing his lab area and various materials. We also thank Dr. Biao Ding for access to his confocal microscope. This research was partially supported by the OARDC Research Enhancement Competitive Grant Program to JKN.
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Na, JK., Metzger, J.D. Chimeric promoter mediates guard cell-specific gene expression in tobacco under water deficit. Biotechnol Lett 36, 1893–1899 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10529-014-1553-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10529-014-1553-y