Skip to main content
PMC home page
The Plant Cell logoLink to The Plant Cell
. 1990 May;2(5):469–478. doi: 10.1105/tpc.2.5.469

Differential Expression of the Arabidopsis 2S Albumin Genes and the Effect of Increasing Gene Family Size.

P Guerche 1, C Tire 1, FG De Sa 1, A De Clercq 1, M Van Montagu 1, E Krebbers 1
PMCID: PMC159903  PMID: 12354963

Abstract

We studied the expression of the four genes encoding 2S albumin seed storage proteins (at2S1 to at2S4) in Arabidopsis thaliana. All four genes followed similar temporal profiles throughout development, but at2S2 and at2S3 were expressed at significantly higher levels than at2S1 or at2S4. In situ hybridization showed that at2S2 to at2S4 mRNAs were present throughout the embryo, whereas at2S1 was expressed at levels similar to at2S2 and at2S3 in the embryo axis but at only insignificant levels in the cotyledons. The different members of the gene family are, thus, likely to be regulated by different combinations of cis-acting elements, but it cannot be ruled out that post-transcriptional factors play a role. We studied the effect of enlarging the gene family by introducing an extra, nearly identical gene driven by the promoter of at2S1. The data were consistent with a model in which the expression of at2S2 to at2S4 is not affected by that of at2S1, and in which, at least at low copy numbers of the introduced gene, there is no limit on the overall amount of RNA that the at2S gene family can produce.

Full Text

The Full Text of this article is available as a PDF (2.4 MB).

Selected References

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

  1. Angerer L. M., Angerer R. C. Detection of poly A+ RNA in sea urchin eggs and embryos by quantitative in situ hybridization. Nucleic Acids Res. 1981 Jun 25;9(12):2819–2840. doi: 10.1093/nar/9.12.2819. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Barker S. J., Harada J. J., Goldberg R. B. Cellular localization of soybean storage protein mRNA in transformed tobacco seeds. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1988 Jan;85(2):458–462. doi: 10.1073/pnas.85.2.458. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Beachy R. N., Chen Z. L., Horsch R. B., Rogers S. G., Hoffmann N. J., Fraley R. T. Accumulation and assembly of soybean beta-conglycinin in seeds of transformed petunia plants. EMBO J. 1985 Dec 1;4(12):3047–3053. doi: 10.1002/j.1460-2075.1985.tb04044.x. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Chadwick R., McGinnis W. Temporal and spatial distribution of transcripts from the Deformed gene of Drosophila. EMBO J. 1987 Mar;6(3):779–789. doi: 10.1002/j.1460-2075.1987.tb04820.x. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Cox K. H., DeLeon D. V., Angerer L. M., Angerer R. C. Detection of mrnas in sea urchin embryos by in situ hybridization using asymmetric RNA probes. Dev Biol. 1984 Feb;101(2):485–502. doi: 10.1016/0012-1606(84)90162-3. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Crouch M. L., Tenbarge K. M., Simon A. E., Ferl R. cDNA clones for Brassica napus seed storage proteins: evidence from nucleotide sequence analysis that both subunits of napin are cleaved from a precursor polypeptide. J Mol Appl Genet. 1983;2(3):273–283. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. De Clercq A., Vandewiele M., De Rycke R., Van Damme J., Van Montagu M., Krebbers E., Vandekerckhove J. Expression and Processing of an Arabidopsis 2S Albumin in Transgenic Tobacco. Plant Physiol. 1990 Apr;92(4):899–907. doi: 10.1104/pp.92.4.899. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Dean C., Elzen P., Tamaki S., Dunsmuir P., Bedbrook J. Differential expression of the eight genes of the petunia ribulose bisphosphate carboxylase small subunit multi-gene family. EMBO J. 1985 Dec 1;4(12):3055–3061. doi: 10.1002/j.1460-2075.1985.tb04045.x. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Goldberg R. B., Hoschek G., Vodkin L. O. An insertion sequence blocks the expression of a soybean lectin gene. Cell. 1983 Jun;33(2):465–475. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(83)90428-2. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Harada J. J., Barker S. J., Goldberg R. B. Soybean beta-conglycinin genes are clustered in several DNA regions and are regulated by transcriptional and posttranscriptional processes. Plant Cell. 1989 Apr;1(4):415–425. doi: 10.1105/tpc.1.4.415. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Jofuku K. D., Goldberg R. B. Kunitz trypsin inhibitor genes are differentially expressed during the soybean life cycle and in transformed tobacco plants. Plant Cell. 1989 Nov;1(11):1079–1093. doi: 10.1105/tpc.1.11.1079. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Jones J. D., Dunsmuir P., Bedbrook J. High level expression of introduced chimaeric genes in regenerated transformed plants. EMBO J. 1985 Oct;4(10):2411–2418. doi: 10.1002/j.1460-2075.1985.tb03949.x. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Josefsson L. G., Lenman M., Ericson M. L., Rask L. Structure of a gene encoding the 1.7 S storage protein, napin, from Brassica napus. J Biol Chem. 1987 Sep 5;262(25):12196–12201. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Krebbers E., Herdies L., De Clercq A., Seurinck J., Leemans J., Van Damme J., Segura M., Gheysen G., Van Montagu M., Vandekerckhove J. Determination of the Processing Sites of an Arabidopsis 2S Albumin and Characterization of the Complete Gene Family. Plant Physiol. 1988 Aug;87(4):859–866. doi: 10.1104/pp.87.4.859. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Melton D. A., Krieg P. A., Rebagliati M. R., Maniatis T., Zinn K., Green M. R. Efficient in vitro synthesis of biologically active RNA and RNA hybridization probes from plasmids containing a bacteriophage SP6 promoter. Nucleic Acids Res. 1984 Sep 25;12(18):7035–7056. doi: 10.1093/nar/12.18.7035. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Peleman J., Boerjan W., Engler G., Seurinck J., Botterman J., Alliotte T., Van Montagu M., Inzé D. Strong cellular preference in the expression of a housekeeping gene of Arabidopsis thaliana encoding S-adenosylmethionine synthetase. Plant Cell. 1989 Jan;1(1):81–93. doi: 10.1105/tpc.1.1.81. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Perez-Grau L., Goldberg R. B. Soybean Seed Protein Genes Are Regulated Spatially during Embryogenesis. Plant Cell. 1989 Nov;1(11):1095–1109. doi: 10.1105/tpc.1.11.1095. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  18. Scofield S. R., Crouch M. L. Nucleotide sequence of a member of the napin storage protein family from Brassica napus. J Biol Chem. 1987 Sep 5;262(25):12202–12208. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  19. Sheen J. Y., Bogorad L. Differential expression of six light-harvesting chlorophyll a/b binding protein genes in maize leaf cell types. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1986 Oct;83(20):7811–7815. doi: 10.1073/pnas.83.20.7811. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  20. Sugita M., Gruissem W. Developmental, organ-specific, and light-dependent expression of the tomato ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase small subunit gene family. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1987 Oct;84(20):7104–7108. doi: 10.1073/pnas.84.20.7104. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  21. Sullivan T. D., Christensen A. H., Quail P. H. Isolation and characterization of a maize chlorophyll a/b binding protein gene that produces high levels of mRNA in the dark. Mol Gen Genet. 1989 Feb;215(3):431–440. doi: 10.1007/BF00427040. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  22. Thomas P. S. Hybridization of denatured RNA and small DNA fragments transferred to nitrocellulose. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1980 Sep;77(9):5201–5205. doi: 10.1073/pnas.77.9.5201. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  23. Tobin E. M. Light regulation of specific mRNA species in Lemna gibba L. G-3. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1978 Oct;75(10):4749–4753. doi: 10.1073/pnas.75.10.4749. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  24. Valvekens D., Van Montagu M., Van Lijsebettens M. Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated transformation of Arabidopsis thaliana root explants by using kanamycin selection. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1988 Aug;85(15):5536–5540. doi: 10.1073/pnas.85.15.5536. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  25. Walling L., Drews G. N., Goldberg R. B. Transcriptional and post-transcriptional regulation of soybean seed protein mRNA levels. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1986 Apr;83(7):2123–2127. doi: 10.1073/pnas.83.7.2123. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

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

RESOURCES