title: Bidirectional promoters in seed development and related hormone/stress responses.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Bidirectional promoters are common in genomes but under-studied experimentally, particularly in plants. We describe a targeted identification and selection of a subset of putative bidirectional promoters to identify genes involved in seed development and to investigate possible coordinated responses of gene pairs to conditions important in seed maturation such as desiccation and ABA-regulation.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We combined a search for 100-600 bp intergenic regions in the Arabidopsis genome with a cis-element based selection for those containing multiple copies of the G-box motif, CACGTG. One of the putative bidirectional promoters identified also contained a CE3 coupling element 5 bp downstream of one G-box and is identical to that characterized previously in the HVA1 promoter of barley. CE3 elements are significantly under-represented and under-studied in Arabidopsis. We further characterized the pair of genes associated with this promoter and uncovered roles for two small, previously uncharacterized, plant-specific proteins in Arabidopsis seed development and stress responses.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Using bioinformatics we identified putative bidirectional promoters involved in seed development and analysed expression patterns for a pair of plant-specific genes in various tissues and in response to hormones/stress. We also present preliminary functional analysis of these genes that is suggestive of roles in seed development.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, University of Leicester, University Road, Leicester LE1 7RH, UK. sd201@le.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Sofia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kourmpetli
authors.forename: Kate
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Rachel
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Hemsley
authors.forename: Pascale
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Rossignol
authors.forename: Thaleia
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Papageorgiou
authors.forename: Sinéad
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Drea
mesh_terms: D000040:Abscisic Acid / Q000494:pharmacology; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D017360:Arabidopsis / Q000187:drug effects / Q000235:genetics* / Q000254:growth & development / Q000502:physiology*; D029681:Arabidopsis Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D020029:Base Pairing / Q000235:genetics; D001483:Base Sequence; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics; D018507:Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental / Q000187:drug effects; D018506:Gene Expression Regulation, Plant / Q000187:drug effects; D017343:Genes, Plant / Q000235:genetics; D006579:Heterozygote; D006720:Homozygote; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010937:Plant Growth Regulators / Q000494:pharmacology; D011401:Promoter Regions, Genetic; D012639:Seeds / Q000187:drug effects / Q000235:genetics* / Q000254:growth & development*; D013045:Species Specificity; D013312:Stress, Physiological / Q000187:drug effects / Q000235:genetics; D024363:Transcription Initiation Site
chemical_list: D029681:Arabidopsis Proteins; D004269:DNA, Bacterial; D010937:Plant Growth Regulators; C036483:T-DNA; D000040:Abscisic Acid