title: Functional analysis of the rice rubisco activase promoter in transgenic Arabidopsis.
abstract: To gain a better understanding of the regulatory mechanism of the rice rubisco activase (Rca) gene, variants of the Rca gene promoter (one full-length and four deletion mutants) fused to the coding region of the bacterial reporter gene β-glucuronidase (GUS) were introduced into Arabidopsis via Agrobacterium-mediated transformation. Our results show that a 340 bp fragment spanning from -297 to +43 bp relative to the transcription initiation site is enough to promote tissue-specific and light-inducible expression of the rice Rca gene as done by the full-length promoter (-1428 to +43 bp). Further deletion analysis indicated that the region conferring tissue-specificity of Rca expression is localized within a 105 bp fragment from -58 to +43 bp, while light-inducible expression of Rca is mediated by the region from -297 to -58 bp. Gel shift assays and competition experiments demonstrated that rice nuclear proteins bind specifically with the fragment conferring light responsiveness at more than one binding site. This implies that multiple cis-elements may be involved in light-induced expression of the rice Rca gene. These works provide a useful reference for understanding transcriptional regulation mechanism of the rice Rca gene, and lay a strong foundation for further detection of related cis-elements and trans-factors.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Photobiology, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100093, PR China.
authors.forename: Zhipan
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Qingtao
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.forename: Xiaogang
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wen
authors.forename: Fan
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Congming
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Lu
mesh_terms: D017360:Arabidopsis / Q000235:genetics*; D001483:Base Sequence; D024202:Electrophoretic Mobility Shift Assay; D015971:Gene Expression Regulation, Enzymologic; D018506:Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; D017930:Genes, Reporter; D005966:Glucuronidase / Q000235:genetics; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009687:Nuclear Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D012275:Oryza / Q000235:genetics*; D010940:Plant Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D030821:Plants, Genetically Modified / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D009687:Nuclear Proteins; D010940:Plant Proteins; C054765:rca protein, plant; D005966:Glucuronidase