Skip to main content
NCBI home page
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America logoLink to Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
. 1988 Jun;85(12):4310–4314. doi: 10.1073/pnas.85.12.4310

An enhancer-like element present in the promoter of a T-DNA gene from the Ti plasmid of Agrobacterium tumefaciens

Wesley B Bruce 1,*, Ram Bandyopadhyay 1,†, William B Gurley 1
PMCID: PMC280418  PMID: 16593943

Abstract

The promoter of the 780 gene of T-right [Thomashow, M., Nutter, R., Montoya, A., Gordon, M. & Nester, E. (1980) Cell 19, 729-739] from Agrobacterium tumefaciens Ti plasmid (pTi15955) was shown to contain an upstream cis-acting element (activator) having enhancer-like properties. To characterize the properties of this promoter element, it was placed in both polarities, upstream and downstream of a Δ-37 deletion mutant of the 780 gene. The Δ-37 deletion contains the entire 780 gene with the 5′ flanking sequences deleted upstream of TATA to -37. The effect of the activator on in vivo transcriptional activity was assessed by S1 nuclease mapping utilizing a homologous reference gene as an internal standard. Transcript levels from sunflower crown gall tumors were between 127% and 90% of the wild-type 780 gene depending on the polarity of the activator element when placed directly upstream to the 780 gene Δ-37 promoter. Repositioning the activator element 613 base pairs further upstream increased transcription by 2-fold regardless of polarity. However, the activator element did not promote transcription when placed in either polarity ≈200 base pairs downstream of the poly(A) addition site. Upstream promoter fragments (TATA-distal) from the octopine synthase (ocs) and agropine synthase (ags) genes were also tested for activation of the Δ-37 construction. The ocs sequences activated transcription of the Δ-37 deletion to 14% of wild-type levels when placed upstream in the B (reverse) orientation. All other constructions with the ocs and ags sequences showed no enhancement of promoter activity.

Keywords: transcription, Ti plasmid, 780 gene, Agrobacterium tumefaciens

Full text

PDF
4310

Images in this article

4312Image
on p.4312

Selected References

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

  1. Banerji J., Rusconi S., Schaffner W. Expression of a beta-globin gene is enhanced by remote SV40 DNA sequences. Cell. 1981 Dec;27(2 Pt 1):299–308. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(81)90413-x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Bruce W. B., Gurley W. B. Functional domains of a T-DNA promoter active in crown gall tumors. Mol Cell Biol. 1987 Jan;7(1):59–67. doi: 10.1128/mcb.7.1.59. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Chang A. C., Cohen S. N. Construction and characterization of amplifiable multicopy DNA cloning vehicles derived from the P15A cryptic miniplasmid. J Bacteriol. 1978 Jun;134(3):1141–1156. doi: 10.1128/jb.134.3.1141-1156.1978. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Cochran M. D., Weissmann C. Modular structure of the beta-globin and the TK promoters. EMBO J. 1984 Nov;3(11):2453–2459. doi: 10.1002/j.1460-2075.1984.tb02155.x. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Dandanell G., Valentin-Hansen P., Larsen J. E., Hammer K. Long-range cooperativity between gene regulatory sequences in a prokaryote. 1987 Feb 26-Mar 4Nature. 325(6107):823–826. doi: 10.1038/325823a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Dunn T. M., Hahn S., Ogden S., Schleif R. F. An operator at -280 base pairs that is required for repression of araBAD operon promoter: addition of DNA helical turns between the operator and promoter cyclically hinders repression. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1984 Aug;81(16):5017–5020. doi: 10.1073/pnas.81.16.5017. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Dynan W. S., Tjian R. Control of eukaryotic messenger RNA synthesis by sequence-specific DNA-binding proteins. 1985 Aug 29-Sep 4Nature. 316(6031):774–778. doi: 10.1038/316774a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Ellis J. G., Llewellyn D. J., Dennis E. S., Peacock W. J. Maize Adh-1 promoter sequences control anaerobic regulation: addition of upstream promoter elements from constitutive genes is necessary for expression in tobacco. EMBO J. 1987 Jan;6(1):11–16. doi: 10.1002/j.1460-2075.1987.tb04711.x. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Ellis J. G., Llewellyn D. J., Walker J. C., Dennis E. S., Peacock W. J. The ocs element: a 16 base pair palindrome essential for activity of the octopine synthase enhancer. EMBO J. 1987 Nov;6(11):3203–3208. doi: 10.1002/j.1460-2075.1987.tb02636.x. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Fluhr R., Kuhlemeier C., Nagy F., Chua N. H. Organ-specific and light-induced expression of plant genes. Science. 1986 May 30;232(4754):1106–1112. doi: 10.1126/science.232.4754.1106. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Fraley R. T., Rogers S. G., Horsch R. B., Sanders P. R., Flick J. S., Adams S. P., Bittner M. L., Brand L. A., Fink C. L., Fry J. S. Expression of bacterial genes in plant cells. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1983 Aug;80(15):4803–4807. doi: 10.1073/pnas.80.15.4803. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Gurley W. B., Czarnecka E., Nagao R. T., Key J. L. Upstream sequences required for efficient expression of a soybean heat shock gene. Mol Cell Biol. 1986 Feb;6(2):559–565. doi: 10.1128/mcb.6.2.559. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Hochschild A., Ptashne M. Cooperative binding of lambda repressors to sites separated by integral turns of the DNA helix. Cell. 1986 Mar 14;44(5):681–687. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(86)90833-0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Kay R., Chan A., Daly M., McPherson J. Duplication of CaMV 35S Promoter Sequences Creates a Strong Enhancer for Plant Genes. Science. 1987 Jun 5;236(4806):1299–1302. doi: 10.1126/science.236.4806.1299. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Khoury G., Gruss P. Enhancer elements. Cell. 1983 Jun;33(2):313–314. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(83)90410-5. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Majumdar A., Adhya S. Demonstration of two operator elements in gal: in vitro repressor binding studies. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1984 Oct;81(19):6100–6104. doi: 10.1073/pnas.81.19.6100. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Moreau P., Hen R., Wasylyk B., Everett R., Gaub M. P., Chambon P. The SV40 72 base repair repeat has a striking effect on gene expression both in SV40 and other chimeric recombinants. Nucleic Acids Res. 1981 Nov 25;9(22):6047–6068. doi: 10.1093/nar/9.22.6047. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  18. Mossing M. C., Record M. T., Jr Upstream operators enhance repression of the lac promoter. Science. 1986 Aug 22;233(4766):889–892. doi: 10.1126/science.3090685. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  19. Salomon F., Deblaere R., Leemans J., Hernalsteens J. P., Van Montagu M., Schell J. Genetic identification of functions of TR-DNA transcripts in octopine crown galls. EMBO J. 1984 Jan;3(1):141–146. doi: 10.1002/j.1460-2075.1984.tb01774.x. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  20. Sanger F., Air G. M., Barrell B. G., Brown N. L., Coulson A. R., Fiddes C. A., Hutchison C. A., Slocombe P. M., Smith M. Nucleotide sequence of bacteriophage phi X174 DNA. Nature. 1977 Feb 24;265(5596):687–695. doi: 10.1038/265687a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  21. Shore D., Baldwin R. L. Energetics of DNA twisting. I. Relation between twist and cyclization probability. J Mol Biol. 1983 Nov 15;170(4):957–981. doi: 10.1016/s0022-2836(83)80198-3. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  22. Thomashow M. F., Nutter R., Montoya A. L., Gordon M. P., Nester E. W. Integration and organization of Ti plasmid sequences in crown gall tumors. Cell. 1980 Mar;19(3):729–739. doi: 10.1016/s0092-8674(80)80049-3. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  23. Timko M. P., Kausch A. P., Castresana C., Fassler J., Herrera-Estrella L., Van den Broeck G., Van Montagu M., Schell J., Cashmore A. R. Light regulation of plant gene expression by an upstream enhancer-like element. Nature. 1985 Dec 12;318(6046):579–582. doi: 10.1038/318579a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  24. Winter J. A., Wright R. L., Gurley W. B. Map locations of five transcripts homologous to TR-DNA in tobacco and sunflower crown gall tumors. Nucleic Acids Res. 1984 Mar 12;12(5):2391–2406. doi: 10.1093/nar/12.5.2391. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  25. de Pater B. S., Klinkhamer M. P., Amesz P. A., de Kam R. J., Memelink J., Hoge J. H., Schilperoort R. A. Plant expression signals of the Agrobacterium T-cyt gene. Nucleic Acids Res. 1987 Oct 26;15(20):8267–8281. doi: 10.1093/nar/15.20.8267. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  26. de Villiers J., Schaffner W. A small segment of polyoma virus DNA enhances the expression of a cloned beta-globin gene over a distance of 1400 base pairs. Nucleic Acids Res. 1981 Dec 11;9(23):6251–6264. doi: 10.1093/nar/9.23.6251. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America are provided here courtesy of National Academy of Sciences

RESOURCES