Biotech Updates

A Sweetpotato SRD1 Promoter Confers Strong Expression in Arabidopsis, Carrot, and Potato

June 17, 2011

Starch-storing organs of plants are considered as important agronomic products because they can be target organs for molecular farming of recombinant proteins due to their strong sink strength. To use up the directing strong expression in these storage organs, Seol Ah No and colleagues at Korea University isolated the promoter region of SRD1 of sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) and characterized its activity in transgenic Arabidopsis, carrot, and potato using β-glucuronidase (GUS) gene (uidA) as a reporter gene.

Results showed that SRD1 promoter conferred root-specific expression in transgenic Arabidopsis while in transgenic potato, the promoter directed strong tuber-specific expression. In transgenic carrot, SRD1 promoter mediated strong taproot-specific expression, with increasing activity as the diameter of the taproot increases.

The researchers concluded that the SRD1 promoter directs strong expression specifically in the underground storage organs.

Subscribers of Transgenic Research journal can download the full paper at http://www.springerlink.com/content/j426476731242730/.