Abstract
Light regulates many varied physiological and developmental phenomena during plant growth and differentiation, including the formation of a photosynthetically competent chloroplast from a proplastid1. The expression of ribulose 1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase small subunit (rbcS) genes is regulated by light in a development- and tissue-specific manner2,3. In some plant species, phytochrome has been demonstrated to mediate this response4–7, and photoregulation of rbcS expression occurs at least in part at the level of transcription8,9. We have shown previously that a 5′-noncoding fragment (4–973 base pairs (bp) upstream of the messenger RNA cap site) of the pea rbcS ss3.6 gene contains all of the nucleotide sequence information necessary to direct the photoregulated expression of a bacterial chloramphenicol acetyltransferase (cat) gene in tobacco10. Consistent with these findings, Morelli et al.11 have shown by deletion analysis of a second rbcS gene promoter, that the sequences required for photo-regulated expression of rbcS E9 reside within the 5′-noncoding region. They identified an upstream region of ∼700 bp needed for maximum transcription but not light–dark regulation, and a region from −35 to −2 bp which included the TATA box and contained the necessary information for light responsiveness. We now demonstrate that regulatory sequences 5′ distal to the rbcS ss3.6 TATA box and transcriptional start site not only contain the information necessary for maximum expression, but also confer photoregulation. These upstream regulatory sequences function independently of orientation when fused to their homologous promoter or a heterologous promoter.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 51 print issues and online access
$199.00 per year
only $3.90 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Ellis, R. J. Trends biochem. Sci. 4, 241–244 (1979); A. Rev. Pl. Physiol. 32, 111–137 (1981).
Smith, S. M. & Ellis, R. J. J. molec. Appl. Genet. 1, 127–137 (1981).
Coruzzi, G., Broglie, R., Edwards, C. & Chua, N.-H. EMBO J. 3, 1671–1679 (1984).
Tobin, E. M. Pl. molec. Biol 1, 35–51 (1981).
Sasaki, Y., Sakihama, T., Kamikubo, T. & Shinozaki, K. Bur. J. Biochem. 133, 617–620 (1983).
Thompson, W. F., Everett, M., Polans, N. O., Jorgensen, R. A. & Palmer, D. A. Planta 158, 487–500 (1983).
Jenkins, G. I. Hartley, M. R. & Bennett, J. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B303, 419–431 (1983).
Gallagher, T. F. & Ellis, R. J. EMBO J. 1, 1493–1498 (1982).
Silverthorne, J. & Tobin, E. M. Proc. natn. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 81, 1112–1116 (1984).
Herrera-Estrella, L. et al. Nature 310, 115–120 (1984).
Morelli, G. et al. Nature 315, 200–204 (1985).
Banerji, J., Rusconi, S. & Schaffner, W. Cell 27, 299–308 (1981).
Moreau, P. et al. Nucleic Acids Res. 9, 6047–6069 (1981).
Fromm, M. & Berg, P. J. molec. appl. Genet. 1, 457–481 (1982).
Chandler, V. L., Maler, B. A. & Yamamoto, K. R. Cell 33, 489–499 (1983).
Gillies, S. D., Morrison, S. L., Oi, V. T. & Tonegawa, S. Cell 33, 717–728 (1983).
Banerji, J., Olson, L. & Schaffner, W. Cell 33, 729–740 (1983).
Queen, C. & Baltimore, D. Cell 33, 741–748 (1983).
Cashmore, A. R. in Genetic Engineering of Plants, an Agricultural Perspective (eds Kosuge, T., Meredith, C. P. & Hollaender, A.) 29–38 (Plenum, New York, 1983).
Gorman, C. M., Moffat, L. F. & Howard, B. H. Molec. Cell. Biol. 2, 1044–1051 (1982).
Herrera-Estrella, L., Depicker, A., Van Montagu, M. & Schell, J. Nature 303, 209–213 (1983).
Imperiale, M. J., Hart, R. P. & Nevins, J. R. Proc. natn. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 82, 381–385 (1985).
Laimins, L. A. et al. Proc. natn. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 79, 6453–6457 (1982).
Struhl, K. Proc. natn. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 81, 7865–7869 (1984).
Guarente, L. & Hoar, E. Proc. natn. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 81, 7860–7864 (1984).
Brent, R. & Ptashne, M. Nature 312, 612–615 (1984).
Depicker, A. et al. J. molec. appl. Genet. 1, 561–573 (1982).
Shaw, C. H., Carter, G. H., Watson, M. D. & Shaw, C. H. Nucleic Acids Res. 12, 7831–7846 (1984).
Sanger, F., Nicklen, S. & Coulson, A. R. Proc. natn. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 74, 5463–5467 (1977).
Van Haute, E. et al. EMBO J. 2, 411–417 (1983).
Murashige, T. & Skoog, F. Physiol Pl. 15, 473–497 (1964).
Maxam, A. & Gilbert, W. Meth. Enzym. 65, 499–580 (1980).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Timko, M., Kausch, A., Castresana, C. et al. Light regulation of plant gene expression by an upstream enhancer-like element. Nature 318, 579–582 (1985). https://doi.org/10.1038/318579a0
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/318579a0
This article is cited by
-
Novel inducible promoter DREB1G cloned from date palm exhibits high fold expression over AtRD29 to drought and salinity stress
Plant Cell, Tissue and Organ Culture (PCTOC) (2023)
-
Transcriptional Regulation of NADP-Dependent Malate Dehydrogenase: Comparative Genetics and Identification of DNA-Binding Proteins
Journal of Molecular Evolution (2007)
-
DNA sequence requirement of a TATA element-binding protein from Arabidopsis for transcription in vitro
Plant Molecular Biology (1993)
-
Salt stress alters A/T-rich DNA-binding factor interactions within the phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase promoter from Mesembryanthemum crystallinum
Plant Molecular Biology (1992)
Comments
By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines. If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.