title: Cestrum yellow leaf curling virus (CmYLCV) promoter: a new strong constitutive promoter for heterologous gene expression in a wide variety of crops.
abstract: Appropriately regulated gene expression requires a suitable promoter. A number of promoters have been isolated and shown to be functional in plants, but only a few of them activate transcription of transgenes at high levels constitutively. We report here the cloning and characterization of a novel, constitutively expressed promoter isolated from Cestrum yellow leaf curling virus (CmYLCV), a double-stranded DNA plant pararetrovirus belonging to the Caulimoviridae family. The CmYLCV promoter is highly active in callus, meristems and vegetative and reproductive tissues in Arabidopsis thaliana, Nicotiana tabacum, Lycopersicon esculentum, Zea mays and Oryza sativa. Furthermore, the level of expression is comparable to, or higher than, that from the CaMV 35S, the 'super-promoter' or the maize ubiquitin 1 promoters, three frequently used promoters in agricultural biotechnology. The heritable, strong and constitutive activity in both monocotyledonous and dicotyledonous plants, combined with the extremely narrow CmYLCV host range, makes the CmYLCV promoter an attractive tool for regulating transgene expression in a wide variety of plant species.
authors.affiliation: Friedrich Miescher Institute, Maulbeerstrasse 66, 4058 Basel, Switzerland. l.stavolone@area.ba.cnr.it
authors.forename: Livia
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Stavolone
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kononova
authors.forename: Sandra
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Pauli
authors.forename: Antonio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ragozzino
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: de Haan
authors.forename: Steve
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Milligan
authors.forename: Kay
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Lawton
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hohn
mesh_terms: D017360:Arabidopsis / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D017796:Caulimovirus / Q000235:genetics*; D032301:Cestrum / Q000821:virology*; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D018628:Gene Dosage; D015870:Gene Expression; D005966:Glucuronidase / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D049452:Green Fluorescent Proteins; D006651:Histocytochemistry; D008164:Luminescent Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D018551:Solanum lycopersicum / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D008856:Microscopy, Fluorescence; D012275:Oryza / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D030821:Plants, Genetically Modified / Q000235:genetics*; D010957:Plasmids / Q000235:genetics; D011401:Promoter Regions, Genetic / Q000235:genetics*; D011993:Recombinant Fusion Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D014026:Nicotiana / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D019076:Transgenes / Q000235:genetics; D003313:Zea mays / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D008164:Luminescent Proteins; D011993:Recombinant Fusion Proteins; D049452:Green Fluorescent Proteins; D005966:Glucuronidase