Skip to main content
PMC home page
The Plant Cell logoLink to The Plant Cell
. 1990 May;2(5):393–401. doi: 10.1105/tpc.2.5.393

Pollen- and anther-specific chi promoters from petunia: tandem promoter regulation of the chiA gene.

A J van Tunen 1, L A Mur 1, G S Brouns 1, J D Rienstra 1, R E Koes 1, J N Mol 1
PMCID: PMC159896  PMID: 2152165

Abstract

We have analyzed the spatial and temporal activities of chalcone flavanone isomerase (chi) A and B gene promoters from petunia. To study the tandem promoter regulation of chiA, various chiA promoter fragments were fused with the beta-glucuronidase (GUS) reporter gene. Analysis of transgenic plants containing these chimeric genes provided definitive proof that the chiA coding region is regulated by two distinct promoters (designated PA1 and PA2). We also showed that both promoters can function independently and that the chiA PA1 promoter is expressed in limb (epidermal and parenchyma cells), tube (inner epidermal and parenchyma cells), seed (seed coat, endosperm, and embryo), sepal, leaf, and stem. The use of chiA and chiB promoters in the regulation of anther- and pollen-specific gene expression has been studied. By analyzing transgenic plants containing chimeric genes consisting of chiA and B promoter fragments and the GUS reporter gene, we were able to identify a 0.44-kilobase chiA PA2 promoter fragment that drives pollen-specific gene expression and a 1.75-kilobase chiB PB promoter fragment that confers anther-specific (pollen and tapetum cells) expression to the GUS gene.

Full Text

The Full Text of this article is available as a PDF (1.2 MB).

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. A simple and general method for transferring genes into plants. Science. 1985 Mar 8;227(4691):1229–1231. doi: 10.1126/science.227.4691.1229. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Bevan M. Binary Agrobacterium vectors for plant transformation. Nucleic Acids Res. 1984 Nov 26;12(22):8711–8721. doi: 10.1093/nar/12.22.8711. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Brown J. W., Feix G. A functional splice site in the 5' untranslated region of a zein gene. Nucleic Acids Res. 1990 Jan 11;18(1):111–117. doi: 10.1093/nar/18.1.111. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Chen J., Varner J. E. An extracellular matrix protein in plants: characterization of a genomic clone for carrot extensin. EMBO J. 1985 Sep;4(9):2145–2151. doi: 10.1002/j.1460-2075.1985.tb03908.x. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Drews G. N., Goldberg R. B. Genetic control of flower development. Trends Genet. 1989 Aug;5(8):256–261. doi: 10.1016/0168-9525(89)90098-x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Goldberg R. B. Plants: novel developmental processes. Science. 1988 Jun 10;240(4858):1460–1467. doi: 10.1126/science.3287622. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Jefferson R. A., Kavanagh T. A., Bevan M. W. GUS fusions: beta-glucuronidase as a sensitive and versatile gene fusion marker in higher plants. EMBO J. 1987 Dec 20;6(13):3901–3907. doi: 10.1002/j.1460-2075.1987.tb02730.x. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Koes R. E., Van Blokland R., Quattrocchio F., Van Tunen A. J., Mol JNM. Chalcone Synthase Promoters in Petunia Are Active in Pigmented and Unpigmented Cell Types. Plant Cell. 1990 May;2(5):379–392. doi: 10.1105/tpc.2.5.379. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Mascarenhas J. P. The Male Gametophyte of Flowering Plants. Plant Cell. 1989 Jul;1(7):657–664. doi: 10.1105/tpc.1.7.657. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Stinson J. R., Eisenberg A. J., Willing R. P., Pe M. E., Hanson D. D., Mascarenhas J. P. Genes expressed in the male gametophyte of flowering plants and their isolation. Plant Physiol. 1987 Feb;83(2):442–447. doi: 10.1104/pp.83.2.442. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Twell D., Wing R., Yamaguchi J., McCormick S. Isolation and expression of an anther-specific gene from tomato. Mol Gen Genet. 1989 Jun;217(2-3):240–245. doi: 10.1007/BF02464887. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Ursin V. M., Yamaguchi J., McCormick S. Gametophytic and sporophytic expression of anther-specific genes in developing tomato anthers. Plant Cell. 1989 Jul;1(7):727–736. doi: 10.1105/tpc.1.7.727. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Van Tunen A. J., Mol J. N. A novel purification procedure for chalcone flavanone isomerase from Petunia hybrida and the use of its antibodies to characterize the Po mutation. Arch Biochem Biophys. 1987 Aug 15;257(1):85–91. doi: 10.1016/0003-9861(87)90545-5. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. van Tunen A. J., Koes R. E., Spelt C. E., van der Krol A. R., Stuitje A. R., Mol J. N. Cloning of the two chalcone flavanone isomerase genes from Petunia hybrida: coordinate, light-regulated and differential expression of flavonoid genes. EMBO J. 1988 May;7(5):1257–1263. doi: 10.1002/j.1460-2075.1988.tb02939.x. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from The Plant Cell are provided here courtesy of Oxford University Press

RESOURCES