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Functional Plant Biology Functional Plant Biology Society
Plant function and evolutionary biology
RESEARCH ARTICLE

Diverse Mechanisms Regulate the Expression of Genes Coding for C4 Enzymes

William C. Taylor, Elke Rosche, Jerry S. Marshall, Shahjahan Ali, Chris J. Chastain and Julie A. Chitty

Australian Journal of Plant Physiology 24(4) 437 - 442
Published: 1997

Abstract

Most of the enzymes of the C4 pathway of photosynthesis are compartmentalised in either mesophyll or bundle sheath cells. We have begun to dissect the mechanisms controlling the cell-specific expression of genes coding for C4 enzymes by locating the regulatory DNA sequences from two genes in the transformable C4 dicot, Flaveria bidentis. We show that chloroplast and cytosolic forms of pyruvate,orthophosphate dikinase are encoded by a single gene, Pdk. By fusing selected regions of the Pdk gene, to the gusA reporter gene we were able to infer promoter activities from measurements of GUS enzyme activity in transgenic F. bidentis plants. We show that the 5´ end of the Pdk gene contains sequences controlling high-level, mesophyll-specific expression of the C4 form of the enzyme. The promoter controlling low-level expression of the cytosolic form was located in the large intron. The C4 isoform of NADP-malic enzyme is encoded by the Me1 gene. Analyses of a series of reporter gene fusions showed that sequences at the 5´ end of the gene control bundle sheath expression but that sequences located near the 3´ end are necessary for high-level expression. The mechanisms regulating the expression of both genes are clearly different and suggest that there is no universal mechanism controlling the expression of genes coding for C4 enzymes.

https://doi.org/10.1071/PP97029

© CSIRO 1997

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