Poster: Regulation of gene expression

Abs # 773: Expression of rice rubi3 promoter in transgenic rice plants

Presenter:	Lu, Jianli , jlu6@unity.ncsu.edu
Authors	Lu, Jianli  (A)   Sivamani, Elumalai  (A)   Samadder, Partha  (A)   Qu, Rongda  (A)
Affiliations:	(A): Department of Crop Science, North Carolina State University

A promoter from a rice polyubiquitin gene rubi3 has been isolated. The 5’ UTR intron of the gene strongly enhances the promoter activity in transient expression assays. Transgenic rice plants have been obtained using GUS gene driven by rubi3 promoter and its 5’ UTR intron to investigate its expression pattern and the strength of its activity at the whole plant level. Transgenic rice plants using rubi3 promoter without the 5’ UTR intron will also be obtained for study of the intron effect on the promoter activity in various tissues. The expression pattern of the GUS reporter gene under control of rubi3 promoter will be reported, and the use of the promoter discussed. In addition, various GFP gene versions were compared for its use as an alternative reporter gene in monocots. It was found that sGFP, with the mutation S65T, has the brightest fluorescence among those tested in transient assays.