Regulatory effect of cotton leaf curl virus AC2 on virion sense promoter

The AC2 gene of cotton leaf curl virus (CLCuV) was obtained by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) . The total DNA of the CLCuV infected tomato leaves was used as template, and the amplified DNA fragment was inserted into a cloning vector. Transient expression vectors were constructed by inserting the AC2 gene into downstream region of CaMV 35S promoter. These constructs were delivered into tobacco and cotton leaf cells for transient expression by particle bombardment. The results indicated that the virion sense promoter was activated by AC2 and its activity increased remarkably. However, the activity of transactivated virion sense promoter was still lower than that of the complementary sense promoter. The expression pattern of transactivated virion sense promoter was similar to that of the complementary sense promoter, namely with high activity in both mesophyll and vascular tissues. The possibility of application of AC2 in plant genetic manipulation was also explored.     

Expression analysis ofgdcsP promoter from C3-C4 intermediate plantFlaveria anomala in transgenic rice

ThegdcsP promoter isolated from C₃-C₄ intermediate plantFlaveria anomala was fused to the β-glucuronidase (GUS) gene. The chimeric gene was inserted into the binary vector pBin19 and introduced into the rice (Oryza sativa L.) cv. 8706 byAgrobacteriummediated gene transfer. GUS activity can be detected in leaf, leaf sheath, stem and root tissues via fluorometric GUS assay. However, no GUS activity was found in mature endosperm. Histochemical localization revealed that GUS expression was exclusively restricted to vascular tissues in transgenic plants. This promoter also showed spatial-temporal expression patterns that GUS expression declined significantly with the maturity of plants. These expression patterns make thegdcsP promoter extremely valuable in the applied biotechnology that needs target gene expression restricted to vascular tissues.     

Identification of a bi-directional promoter from Tomato yellow leaf curl China virus

A bi-directional promoter of Tomato yellow leaf curl China virus (TYLCCNV) was obtained with the total DNA from TYLCCNV isolate Y10 infected tobacco leaves as a template. Plant expression vectors were constructed by fusing the amplified DNA fragment with the gus gene and nopaline terminator in different orientations. The vectors containing promoter fragments were transferred into leaf cells and plant stems of Nicotiana benthamiana by Agrobacterium-mediated method. Transient expression results showed that both the complementary and virion-sense promoters could drive the gus gene to express, and the GUS activity of the complementary-sense promoter was stronger than that of the virion-sense. Co-expression of the vector containing βC1 gene of TYLCCNV DNAβ with the vector containing a bi-directional promoter revealed that the βC1 protein has no impact on expression of either the virion- or the complementary-sense promoter.     

Activity of the truncated promoter of pollen-specific G9 gene of cotton and the transgenic recessive nuclei-sterile tobacco

A 557 bp fragment from the translation initiation site of the G9 gene expressed in maturing pollens of cotton was isolated from genomic DNA of upland cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) cv. “Zhongkang 17”, and two expression vectors for plant transformation were constructed via fusing this fragment with β-glucuronidase gene (Gus) and cytotoxin gene Barnase. The promoter activity of this fragment was demonstrated via transient expression of Gus gene in cotton and by the integrated expression of Barnase gene in tobacco. This promoter can initiate the expression of exogenous gene specifically and efficiently in plant pollen. The transgenic tobacco plant containing G9-Barnase fusion gene showed the characteristics of recessive nuclei-sterility.     

Analysis of the Cotton E6 Promoter

An E6 gene from sea island cotton （Gossypium barbadense） was expressed specifically in cotton fiber cells to transfer functions to cultivated species for better transgenic engineering. The regulatory activity of the E6 promoter region was then studied by isolating a 614-bp fragment of the 5＇-flanking region from upland cotton （Gossypium hirsutum CR1-12） to produce a green fluorescent protein （GFP） reporter construct for analysis of tissue-specific expression in transgenic tobacco seedlings. Fluorescent analyses indicate that the relatively short E6 promoter is sufficient to direct green fluorescent protein expression specifically in the leaf trichomes （hair cells） of the transgenic tobacco plants. As cotton fibers are also unicellular trichomes that differentiate from epidermal cells of developing cotton ovules, the result suggests that the relatively short E6 promoter can serve as a fiber-specific expression promoter for genetic engineering to improve cotton fiber quality.     

Expression and anti-apoptotic mechanism of Spodoptera littoralis Nucleopolyhedrovirus P49 protein

A novel cloned Spodoptera littoralis Nucleopolyhedrovirus (SlNPV) p49 gene is able to suppress apoptosis of insect cells Sf9 triggered by virus. The amino acid sequence of P49 expressed in baculovirus expression system is the same as predicted, indicating that the expression of P49 is correct. Metabolic labeling revealed that p49 was able to be expressed both in the early and late phases after the viral infection, and only in the late phase was the expression driven by polyhedra promoter, but the amount of expression was higher than that of wtSlNPV. In summary, the early gene of SlNPV p49 as well as p35 of AcMNPV is able to be expressed in the late phase, but its promoter is weaker compared with polyhedra promoter. In vitro, P49 can be cut by Bm caspase and human caspase-3, yielding 10 and 40 ku fragments. Purified P49 blocks the substrate cleavage by Bm caspase and human caspase-3, showing that P49 inhibits downstream caspases in the apoptotic pathway.     

SCFP,a novel fiber-specific promoter in cotton

To investigate the expression pattern of GhSCFP which was isolated from cotton fiber cDNA library, a 1006 bp upstream fragment of the gene was cloned by chromosome walking and fused to GUSand GFP respectively. Histochemical GUS and GFP fluorescence analysis revealed that the expression of the report genes driven by the promoter sequence was detectable only in outer layer cells during the seed development in the transgentic tobaccos. In transgenic cotton, strong GUS activity was observed in spherical protrusions on 0 dpa （days post anthesis） ovule surface, and in the 2-36 dpa fiber cells, while no GUS signals were detected in the root, leaves, stem, corolla, anther and stigma. Our data demonstrated that GhSCFP upstream sequence is a cotton fiber-specific promoter and this promoter will be useful in the molecular research on fiber cell development and in cotton fiber improvements by genetic modification.     

GCC box in<Emphasis Type="Italic">Arabidopsis PDF1.2</Emphasis> promoter is an essential and sufficient cis-acting element in response to MeJA treatment

The expression of Arabidopsis PDF1.2 gene isregulated by jasmonic acid (JA) and ethylene (ET). It also has been well documented that GCC box is an element responsive to ET, however, the responsive mechanism of JA in such plant defense gene expression is unclear. In this paper, the authors define the essential cis-acting element in PDF1.2 promoter responsive to methyl jasmonate (MeJA) through fragment deletions and site-directed mutageneses combiningAgrobacterium-mediated transient reporter gene expression in tobacco leaves. Firstly, the MeJA inducible expression o fPDF1.2 was confirmed by using the upstream -1.86 kb fragment of PDFI.2 gene. Secondly, the upstream -300— -243 bp fragment of the promoter was evidenced to respond to MeJA. To further characterize this promoter region, three point mutations were introduced into the -300— -243 bp fragment of the promoter. This result showed that the mutation of GCC box abolished MeJA induction, whereas the mutations of the G box-like and the imperfect palindrome sequence did not significantly decrease MeJA inducible effect, indicating that GCC box in PDFI.2 is essential for MeJA induction. The sufficient responsiveness to MeJA of this GCC box was further investigated by 4xGCC fused upstream to the CaMV 35S minimal promoter. This result suggested that the fused promoter was able to activate reporter gene expression in response to MeJA. Thus these results indicate that the GCC box in PDFI.2 is an essential and sufficient element to confer MeJA induction.     

Effect of 5′-deletion ofArabidopsis profilin2 promoter on its vascular specific expression

Based on the published sequence of profilin2 promoter ofArabidopsis thaliana, a full-length promoter (1667 bp) was amplified by PCR. The 5′-end deletion fragments with length of 1380, 1153, 969 and 597 bp were then fused withgus (uidA) gene respectively. Constructed plant expression vectors were individually transferred intoKalanchoe laciniata and transgenic plants regenerated. GUS histochemical assay confirmed that the full-length promoter Pfn1.7 was vascular-specific. Deletion assays showed that profilin2 promoter could be divided into three parts. Deletion of fragment 1 (−1667—−1380 bp) resulted in constitutive expression, suggesting that element(s) responsible for vascular-specific expression might exist in this region. Fragment 2 located at −1153—−597 bp strongly inhibitedgus gene expression. Fragment 3 (−597—−1 bp) is considered as a basic domain of profilin2.     

Identification of seed-specific promoter nap300 and its comparison with 7S promoter

By fusing seed-specific promoter nap300 with β-glucuronidase gene, it was found that this about 300bp DNA fragment was sufficient to direct seed-specific gene expression. The substitution mutation in both distB and proxB elements had a little effect on the expression efficiency and almost no effect on the organ-specific expression pattern. In the experiment designed to compare nap300 with 7S promoter, the result showed that tissue specificity for nap300 was higher than that for 7S, and its expression level was lower than 7S's. There was no big difference in their expression pattern, and the maximal activity stage for the two promoters was identical, which indicated they could be used simultaneously for expressing different foreign genes in seeds.     

Enhanced late blight resistance of transgenic potato expressing glucose oxidase under the control of pathogen-inducible promoter

To engineer crop disease resistance by utilizing natural defense mechanism that was expressed in the incompatible host-pathogen interactions is expected to result in a durable and broad-spectrum resistance. In order to prove this viewpoint, we amplified the coding region of the glucose oxidase (GO) gene from Aspergillus niger via PCR and fused it to the pathogen-inducible promoter, Prp1-1. The chimeric gene was cloned into a plant expression vector and conjugated into Agrobacterium. Twenty-three transgenic potato plants were obtained by Agrobacterium-mediated transformation. The integration of GO gene was confirmed by Southern hybridization and the GO gene expression was identified with KI-starch color reaction. Phytophthora infestans inoculation revealed that the expression of the chimeric transgene was induced by pathogen infection. Most of the transgenic plants exhibited various degrees of enhanced disease resistance. Four of them had lesion sizes reduced to less than half of the non-transgenic controls. One plant showed disease resistance of the hypersensitive response. These results testified the feasibility of our strategy of expressing GO transgene under the control of the disease-inducible promoter in engineering crop disease resistance.     

Cyclic AMP response element binding protein (CREB) participates in the heat-inducible expression of humanhsp90β gene

Human heat shock protein 90b gene ( hsp90b ) is a constitutively expressed heat shock gene existing in most of cell types tested that can be further induced by heat shock. Chloramphenical acetyl transferase (CAT) reporter plasmids driven by different regulatory fragments of hsp90b gene were constructed and transfected into Jurkat cells to explore the role of a cAMP response element (CRE) in the upstream of the gene. Results show that, in comparison with the wild type construct, a severe reduction (~2/3) in the increased folds of promoter activity induced by heat shock at 42℃ for 1 h was observed in a construct with CRE-containing fragment (-173/-91bp) deleted. Electrophoretic mobility shift assays (EMSA) showed that phosphorylated CRE-binding protein (CREB) in the nuclear extract of heat shocked Jurkat cells is specifically bound to the fragment. Additionally, both of the phosphorylation on CREB and the activity of protein kinase A (PKA) were found in Jurkat cells to be enhanced with extending time of heat shock treatment. Our results indicate that in addition to the intronic HSE/HSF pathway, phosphorylated CREB also participates in the heat shock induced expression of human hsp90b gene via its interaction with CRE which may be regulated by PKA-sig- naling pathway.     

基于数据库分析FOXG1在非小细胞肺癌中的表达和临床意义及稳定过表达FOXG1肺癌细胞株A549的构建

通过TCGA数据库分析FOXG1在非小细胞肺癌中的表达及预后相关性，建立稳定过表达人源FOXG1基因的肺癌细胞株A549。利用TCGA数据库中下载基因表达数据和临床信息，分析FOXG1在非小细胞肺癌和正常组织的表达差异、FOXG1表达水平与临床病理特征及生存预后的相关性并进行基因集富集分析。通过HEK-293T包装慢病毒表达载体，收集病毒上清液侵染A549细胞,嘌呤霉素筛选稳定过表达FOXG1的A549细胞株。细胞核染色鉴定外源FOXG1表达定位，Western blot检测外源FOXG1的表达情况。结果发现FOXG1在非小细胞肺癌组织中高表达，且FOXG1高表达能够降低患者总体生存率。FOXG1的表达水平与患者年龄相关，与性别，分级以及TMN分期无关；细胞周期、P53、Notch等信号通路在高表达FOXG1的非小细胞肺癌组织中被激活；慢病毒表达载体共转染HEK-293T细胞成功；病毒上清液侵染A549细胞，24 h后可见绿色荧光表达，72 h后对照组空载体病毒颗粒侵染效率高达80%左右，实验组过表达FOXG1病毒颗粒侵染效率为50%~60%；经嘌呤霉素筛选培养后，对照组和实验组荧光效率均达到90%以上；细胞核染色外源FOXG1基因定位在细胞核中，Western blot结果显示外源FOXG1在细胞中正确表达。因此可以认为FOXG1基因在非小细胞肺癌患者中高表达，其表达水平与患者总体预后有关且稳定表达FOXG1的A549肺癌细胞株构建成功。     

Construction and function of recombinant AcMNPV with double copies of v-cath gene

Two recombinant baculoviruses, dciAcMNPV and dcdAcMNPV in which another copy of the v-cath gene controlled by ie1 promoter and polh promoter was inserted, were respectively constructed by the Bac-to-Bac system. The expression of the v-cath gene of the recombinant baculoviruses in Sf9 cells at different phases was investigated by SDSPAGE and Western blot. The results showed that only recombinant virus dciAcMNPV containing late gene v-cath driven by early gene promoter could express V-CATH protein, cathepsin encoded by virus genome, 12 h post-infection and dcdAcMNPV containing late gene v-cath driven by late and very late gene promoters could express more V-CATH protein. Negative control ncAcMNPV, a mutant deleted vcath gene, could not express V-CATH protein at all. The Spodopera exigua larvae were infected with viruses respectively and the results showed that the toxicity was as follows: dcdAcMNPV>dciAcMNPV>wtAcMNPV>ncAcMNPV. The toxicity of recombinant viruses and the characters of dead larvae showed that the v -cath gene was relative to viral toxicity and host liquefaction. Recombinant baculovirus dcdAcMNPV might be used as a new kind of safe viral-pesticide, because of its high toxicity obtained by adding another gene copy and changing the expression level of its own gene relative to virulence.     

Isolation of a pollen specific promoter in tritordeum

The promoter is a cis-acting element in regulating gene expression. A promoterless plasmid containing UidA gene was transformed into tritordeum by barmbadment. Histochemical analysis of various tissues in transgenic tritordeum was carried to examine tissue-specific expression of GUS(beta-glucuronidase) activity. The pollen-specific promoter was trapped and identified successfully in a transformant line. PCR(polymerase chain reaction) method was used to isolate this pollen-specific promoter. By sequencing and analyzing the amplified fragment from PCR, a part of UidA gene and a flanking sequence were obtained. Some essential elements of plant promoters were found in the sequence. To determine the function of it, the cloned fragment was fused with UidA gene, then cloned and transformed into Triticum durum. The transgenic plant transformed by this vector showed GUS expression only in pollen. Therefore a pollen-specific promoter was isolated successfully.     

Evaluation and characterization of an endosperm-specific sbeⅡa promoter in wheat

Starch,the main component of the wheat grain,is the product of a complex biochemical pathway. The sbeⅡα gene plays a key role in controlling the synthesis of starch, in particular, the biosynthesis of amylopectin,in maturing wheat grain.To investigate its regulatory mechanisms and endosperm-specific expression pattern, the sbeⅡα promoter (3094 bp in length) was cloned using APCR and sequenced.The effect of a series of deletions was studied using a GUS transient assay system. Results showed that the 3094 bp sequence (sbe.g construct) exhibited full stable promoting activity and that the activities of 5′ or 3′ deletions reduced levels of GUS expression. Some constructs with internal deletions showed only weak activity, however,sbe.e, with a deletion from -1579—--1210 bp resulted in higher levels of expression than the full-length promoter sequence, sbe.g. This indicates that motifs such as the -300 bp element, G-box and/or P-box act as positive elements and are necessary in determining the promoter‘s endosperm-specific pattern and that negative repressor elements or motifs may also be present within the -1579—-1210 bp sequence. The age of wheate ndosperm tissue used in the GUS-transient assay system is shown to be of significant importance.