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Molecular Cloning and Characterization of a Trichome-Specific Promoter of Artemisinic Aldehyde Δ11(13) Reductase (DBR2) in Artemisia annua

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Abstract

Artemisinin is widely used as an antimalarial drug around the world. Artemisinic aldehyde Δ11(13) reductase (DBR2) is a key enzyme which reduces artemisinic aldehyde to dihydroartemisinic aldehyde in the biosynthesis of artemisinin. In this study, two fragments encompassing a putative promoter of DBR2, designated as DBR2pro1 and DBR2pro2, were isolated using genomic DNA walking. The transcription start site and the putative cis-elements of each version of promoter were predicted using bioinformatic analysis. In order to study the function of the cloned promoter, Artemisia annua was transformed with β-glucuronidase (GUS) reporter gene driven by DBR2pro1 and DBR2pro2, respectively. GUS staining results demonstrated that both DBR2pro1 and DBR2pro2 were strongly expressed in glandular secretory trichomes (GSTs) of leaf primordia and flower buds, but were not obviously expressed in roots, stems, old leaves, and fully developed flowers, thus indicating that the two versions of promoter were functional and specifically expressed in GSTs.

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Acknowledgments

This work was funded by China “863” Program (grant no. 2011AA100605), China Transgenic Research Program (grant no. 2011ZX08002001), and Shanghai Leading Academic Discipline Project (Horticulture).

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  1. Fudan-SJTU-Nottingham Plant Biotechnology R&D Center, School of Agriculture and Biology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200240, People’s Republic of China

    Weimin Jiang, Xu Lu, Bo Qiu, Fangyuan Zhang, Qian Shen, Zongyou Lv, Xueqing Fu, Tingxiang Yan, Erdi Gao, Mengmeng Zhu, Lingxian Chen, Ling Zhang, Guofeng Wang, Xiaofen Sun & Kexuan Tang

  2. Plant Biotechnology Research Center, School of Agriculture and Biology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200240, People’s Republic of China

    Weimin Jiang, Xu Lu, Bo Qiu, Fangyuan Zhang, Qian Shen, Zongyou Lv, Xueqing Fu, Tingxiang Yan, Erdi Gao, Mengmeng Zhu, Lingxian Chen, Ling Zhang, Guofeng Wang, Xiaofen Sun & Kexuan Tang

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  1. Weimin Jiang
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  2. Xu Lu
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Correspondence to Kexuan Tang.

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Weimin Jiang and Xu Lu contributed equally to this work

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Jiang, W., Lu, X., Qiu, B. et al. Molecular Cloning and Characterization of a Trichome-Specific Promoter of Artemisinic Aldehyde Δ11(13) Reductase (DBR2) in Artemisia annua . Plant Mol Biol Rep 32, 82–91 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11105-013-0603-2

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