Reproductive Organ and Vascular Specific Promoter of the Rice Plasma Membrane Ca2+ATPase Mediates Environmental Stress Responses in Plants

Abstract

BackgroundPlasma membrane Ca2+ATPase is a transport protein in the plasma membrane of cells and helps in removal of calcium (Ca2+) from the cell, hence regulating Ca2+ level within cells. Though plant Ca2+ATPases have been shown to be involved in plant stress responses but their promoter regions have not been well studied.ResultsThe 1478 bp promoter sequence of rice plasma membrane Ca2+ATPase contains cis-acting elements responsive to stresses and plant hormones. To identify the functional region, serial deletions of the promoter were fused with the GUS sequence and four constructs were obtained. These were differentially activated under NaCl, PEG cold, methyl viologen, abscisic acid and methyl jasmonate treatments. We demonstrated that the rice plasma membrane Ca2+ATPase promoter is responsible for vascular-specific and multiple stress-inducible gene expression. Only full-length promoter showed specific GUS expression under stress conditions in floral parts. High GUS activity was observed in roots with all the promoter constructs. The −1478 to −886 bp flanking region responded well upon treatment with salt and drought. Only the full-length promoter presented cold-induced GUS expression in leaves, while in shoots slight expression was observed for −1210 and −886 bp flanking region. The −1210 bp deletion significantly responded to exogenous methyl viologen and abscisic acid induction. The −1210 and −886 bp flanking region resulted in increased GUS activity in leaves under methyl jasmonate treatments, whereas in shoots the −886 bp and −519 bp deletion gave higher expression. Salicylic acid failed to induce GUS activities in leaves for all the constructs.ConclusionsThe rice plasma membrane Ca2+ATPase promoter is a reproductive organ-specific as well as vascular-specific. This promoter contains drought, salt, cold, methyl viologen, abscisic acid and methyl jasmonate related cis-elements, which regulated gene expression. Overall, the tissue-specificity and inducible nature of this promoter could grant wide applicability in plant biotechnology.

Genome wide transcriptome analysis reveals ABA mediated response in Arabidopsis during gold (AuCl−4) treatment

“…Moreover, ABA response is associated with Ca 2+ ion mediated signaling and this motif was reported to be involved in the Ca 2+ mediated signaling. Recently, it has been demonstrated that the promoter sequences of Ca 2+ ATPases harbors ABA related cis-acting elements (ABRE), indicating ABA mediated Ca 2+ ion response (Huda et al, 2013 ). Taken together, these findings suggest that the AuCl − 4 response is mediated through ABA signaling, modulating the large set of genes for the adaptation purposes.…”

Isolation and functional characterization of the promoter of a DEAD-box helicasePsp68usingAgrobacterium-mediated transient assay

“…[14][15][16][17][18] So, inducible and tissue-specific promoters are required to study the gene regulatory networks in plant. 19,20 Cis-regulatory elements present in promoter sequence may function as molecular switch by controlling transcriptional regulation of gene activities. Previously, it was reported that promoter of helicases contained stress responsive cis-elements [21][22][23][24] but the isolation of stress-inducible and tissue-specific promoters 25,26 is still interest in the fiend of molecular breeding, biotechnology and agriculture.…”

A vacuolar antiporter is differentially regulated in leaves and roots of the halophytic wild rice Porteresia coarctata (Roxb.) Tateoka

“…Numerous monocot promoters have been transformed into tobacco as well as monocot transgenic systems [41][42][43][44][45], sometimes with comparable promoter activity in both dicot and monocot systems. Promoters from monocot systems have been also been analyzed in dicot species alone [46][47][48][49][50].…”