Phosphate Transporter Promoter from Arabidopsis thaliana AtPHT1;4 Gene Drives Preferential Gene Expression in Transgenic Maize Roots Under Phosphorus Starvation

• Published in: Plant molecular biology reporter 2010-12, Vol.28 (4), p.717-723
• Main Authors: Coelho, Gracielle T. C. P, Carneiro, Newton P, Karthikeyan, Athikkattuvalasu S, Raghothama, Kaschandra G, Schaffert, Robert E, Brandão, Rosangela L, Paiva, Luciano V, Souza, Isabel R. P, Alves, Vera M, Imolesi, Anderson, Carvalho, Carlos H. S, Carneiro, Andréa A
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: active transport; Arabidopsis thaliana; Bioinformatics; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Bombardment; Corn; Gene expression; gene expression regulation; genes; leaves; Life Sciences; Membrane proteins; Metabolomics; molecular sequence data; nutrient deficiencies; nutrient uptake; Phosphate starvation response; Phosphate transporter; phosphates; Phosphorus; Plant Breeding/Biotechnology; plant nutrition; Plant Sciences; Plants (botany); promoter regions; Proteomics; Reporter gene; reporter genes; Rhizosphere; Roots; Stresses; Transgenic plants; transport proteins; Zea mays
• ISSN: 0735-9640; 1572-9818
• DOI: 10.1007/s11105-010-0199-8

Phosphorus (P) stress responsive genes have been identified and characterized, including the high-affinity phosphate transporter AtPHT1;4 from Arabidopsis thaliana. This gene encodes a membrane protein that is primarily expressed in roots under phosphorus deficiency. A 2.3-kb promoter region from AtPHT1;4 has been fused with the β-glucuronidase (GUS) encoding gene and introduced into maize via biolistic bombardment to evaluate its spatiotemporal activity in a heterologous system. AtPHT1;4::GUS expression is detected preferentially in transgenic maize roots under P deficiency. Further analysis of transgenic plants has also revealed that GUS activity is higher in roots than in leaves by about sixfold. These results demonstrate the ability of AtPHT1;4 promoter to direct expression of the reporter gene in a monocot root system under P stress. This property of AtPHT1;4 promoter makes it useful to engineer maize plants to modify the soil's rhizosphere and increase efficiency of P acquisition under P stress conditions.