ANALYSIS OF REGULATORY ELEMENTS INVOLVED IN STRESS-INDUCED AND ORGAN-SPECIFIC EXPRESSION OF TOBACCO ACIDIC AND BASIC BETA-1,3-GLUCANASE GENES

Infection of tobacco by tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) induces coordinate expression of genes encoding acidic and basic beta-1,3-glucanase isoforms. These genes are differentially expressed in response to other treatments. Salicylate treatment induces acidic glucanase mRNA to a higher level than basic glucanase mRNA. Ethylene treatment and wounding strongly induce the basic glucanase genes but have little effect on genes encoding the acidic isoforms. Furthermore, the basic glucanase genes are constitutively expressed in roots and lower leaves of healthy plants, whereas the acidic glucanase genes are not. In order to investigate how these expression patterns are established, we fused promoter regions of an acidic and a basic glucanase gene to the beta-glucuronidase (GUS) reporter gene and examined expression of these constructs in transgenic tobacco plants. A fragment of 1750 bp and two 5'-truncated fragments of 650 bp and 300 bp of the acidic glucanase promoter were tested for induction of GUS gene expression after salicylate treatment and TMV infection. Upstream sequences of 1750 bp and 650 bp were sufficient for induction of the reporter gene by salicylate treatment and TMV infection, but the activity of the 300 bp fragment was strongly reduced. The results suggest that the 1750 bp upstream sequence of the acidic glucanase gene contains multiple regulatory elements. For the basic glucanase promoter it is shown that 1476 bp of upstream sequences were able to drive expression in response to TMV infection and ethylene treatment, but no response was found to incision wounding. Furthermore, high GUS activity was found in lower leaves and roots of healthy transgenic plants, carrying the 1476 bp basic glucanase promoter/GUS construct. When the promoter was truncated up to position -446 all activity was lost, indicating that the region between -1476 and -446 of the basic glucanase promoter is necessary for organ-specific and developmentally regulated expression as well as for induced expression in response to infection and other stress treatments.